This year so far, 71 Santa Barbara County residents have taken their own lives. It is the highest number of suicides in the past 15 years, and 10 more than the most recent peak in 2009 during the Great Recession. The annual average since 2000 has been 47.
“It’s way high, and we’ll have a few more before the end of the year,” said clinical psychologist Dr. Lisa Firestone with the Glendon Association, a Santa Barbara–based mental-health organization. “Even with variation year-to-year, that’s a big increase,” agreed Dr. Paul Erickson, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital’s director of psychiatry.
In March alone, 12 people committed suicide. A 22-year-old woman in Isla Vista took a lethal amount of pills, a 56-year-old Montecito man hung himself from a tree, and a 69-year-old Santa Maria resident died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. In October, the Santa Ynez Valley was hit with two back-to-back murder-suicides, and just last month a troubled Goleta teen died after running into freeway traffic.