Haigh quoted in BDN article about national report on suicide rates
Emily Haigh, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maine, spoke with the Bangor Daily News about a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the suicide rates among people working in different occupations. The report found people working in the farming, fishing and forestry fields had the highest rate of suicide overall, with 84.5 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people, according to the article. “I think there are a number of factors operating here,” Haigh said. “Farmers, fishermen and foresters — they are largely male-dominated professions, and we know that males are more likely to complete suicide. Farmers, fishermen and foresters also probably have more access to firearms. And my other guess is that we’re dealing with factors related to isolation.” Among those factors is the way many parts of rural Maine are underserved, with respect to mental health care, she said, and the stigma about seeking help that still exists in many places, the article states.