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<p>SCRANTON &#8212; Lackawanna County saw an alarming rate of suicides throughout the course of 2016 and 2017, and now a new initiative is looking to bring awareness to the problem.</p><p>County officials, police officers, and others gathered at the Lackawanna County Courthouse on Wednesday to introduce &#8220;Let&#8217;s Stop Suicide.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really to bring out in public the problem of suicide and bringing in people that can help with that problem,&#8221; said Kathy Wallace, President of the Northeast Suicide Prevention Initiative.</p><p>More than 40 people have taken their own lives each of the last two years in Lackawanna.</p><p>At the conference, items such as gun locks and medication lockboxes were on display and will be distributed to the public. The gun locks can be picked up at police departments throughout the county, and the medication lockboxes are available at pharmacies and some police departments.</p><p>According to information provided by &#8220;Let&#8217;s Stop Suicide,&#8221; over 58 percent of all suicide deaths in Lackawanna County were the result of gunshot woulds, which is higher than the 49.8 percent national figure reported by the National Center of Health Statistics. The center also reports that opiate-related suicide deaths doubled in the last 15 years.</p><p>Wallace said they wanted to put emphasis on the medication boxes and gun locks.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re highlighting the gun locks and the lockboxes for gun safety, not gun control&#8221; she said. &#8220;We have 2,000 gun locks that have the National Suicide Hotline number right on them.&#8221;</p><p>Starting &#8220;Let&#8217;s Stop Suicide&#8221; was a collaborative effort among the Lackawanna County District Attorney&#8217;s office, police departments, local pharmacies, the Northeast National Suicide Prevention Initiative as well as Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and student volunteers from the University of Scranton.</p><p><strong>&#8216;People truly concerned&#8217;</strong></p><p>Helen Lavelle, owner of Lavelle Strategy Group in Scranton, said her marketing company helped bring everyone together.</p><p>&#8220;We know that these folks are doing real public service work,&#8221; she said. &#8220;What we did was sit down and say &#8216;We need to shed light on this.&#8217; So, what we did was contact all of our police chiefs, and we have 19 pharmacies in Lackawanna County that are going to be distributing medication lockboxes.&#8221;</p><p>Lavelle offered high praise to everyone involved, especially the chiefs.</p><p>&#8220;They stepped up so quickly,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Our police chiefs didn&#8217;t hesitate at all. In fact, the Old Forge Police Department, the Taylor Police Department, they came up with additional gun locks to ensure any citizen that wanted a gun lock would get one.&#8221;</p><p>Lackawanna County District Attorney Shane Scanlon knows there is still much work to be done to help with suicide prevention.</p><p>&#8220;I think the most important thing is for people to realize that there are people out there that are concerned about them, worried about them, and that are willing to do what they can to help,&#8221; he said. &#8220;From our college students, to our police officers, pharmacists; people are truly concerned and want to do what they can to help.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Teresa Lacey, executive director of Geisinger Commonwealth&#8217;s Behavioral Health Initiative, speaks at a press conference at the Lackawanna County Courthouse on Wednesday to introduce the &#8216;Let&#8217;s Stop Suicide&#8217; initiative. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_Suicide.jpg</photo0><caption0>Teresa Lacey, executive director of Geisinger Commonwealth&#8217;s Behavioral Health Initiative, speaks at a press conference at the Lackawanna County Courthouse on Wednesday to introduce the &#8216;Let&#8217;s Stop Suicide&#8217; initiative. </caption0><photoCredit0>Jimmy Fisher | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jimmy Fisher</p><p>jfisher@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>MORE INFO</strong></p><p>To learn more about &#8220;Let&#8217;s Stop Suicide,&#8221; and ways to help prevent suicide, visit <a href="http://letsstopsuicide.com" target="_blank">www.letsstopsuicide.com</a>.</p></factboxMeta></div>

Lackawanna County launches ‘Let’s Stop Suicide’ initiative