Young man’s suicide catalyst for change

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 11:49 a.m.

The following are signs of concern that someone might be at risk to commit suicide as provided by the Jason Foundation Inc., a national suicide prevention organization:

Talks about suicide.

Makes statements of feeling hopeless, helpless or worthless.

Displays deep depression.

Has a preoccupation with death.

Takes unnecessary risks or exhibits self-destructive behavior.

Exhibits out-of-character behavior.

Has a loss of interest in the things he cares about.

Sets his affairs in order.

Gives away prized possessions.

On every day since the Valentine's Day suicide of her 22-year-old son, Mariellen Yappel struggles with why Nick Weigle took his own life.

She often finds herself looking back at what she might have done differently, wondering if it might have prevented her son's suicide.

"Nick slept a lot (during his senior year at Silverado High four years ago) and did not apply himself to his school work," Yappel said, noting Weigle, a B-C student, did not have a drug problem.

"But he always refused to go to a doctor for his depression. By the time I saw the first signs that he may have been clinically depressed, he was 6-foot-2, 220 pounds. I was not able to drag him to a doctor if he didn't want to go."

Yappel, having been diagnosed years ago as being clinically depressed herself and, for a while, taking medication that brought it under control, wonders how much of a role genetics plays in suicides. She questions whether the medical community has a grasp on just what causes people to consider taking their lives.

Nevada officials and suicide experts say a concise statewide plan is needed to answer Yappel's question and to better address the issue, especially in a state where the suicide rate for all ages is nearly double the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Last month, the state's leading suicide prevention advocates were in Oregon, attending a regional conference designed to increase suicide awareness and fortify states efforts in addressing the problem.

"We definitely have better direction now," said Lynda Tanner-Delgado a member of the Nevada Coalition for Suicide Prevention and community liaison for the Jason Foundation at Montevista Hospital, which conducts suicide awareness lectures in local schools.

"We have begun to create a state plan to prevent and reduce suicides. Our goals are to develop a mission statement, deal with advocacy for legislation and funding and develop and identify priorities to focus on."

More than 300 suicide prevention activists attended the conference that included seminars on which groups and individuals are at greater risk to commit suicide.

Yappel's concerns about heredity, environment and other factors are being studied, Tanner-Delgado said.

For example, she said, studies released at the conference showed that while Asian adolescent girls were more likely to commit suicide in Asia, Asian adolescent boys were more likely to take their lives in the United States.

"We need to learn more about different minorities," Tanner-Delgado said. "We need to roll up our sleeves and get into their culture so that we understand various cultures and present our programs in a way they will listen to us.

"And we have to choose our suicide prevention programs wisely, using methods that have been socially tested to see if they indeed do prevent suicide."

Linda Flatt, team leader of the 10-member coalition and chairwoman of the Nevada Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said things learned from that conference and the issue of the state funding legislatively created programs are keys to success.

"This is a beginning to try to pull the state together to implement a statewide suicide prevention program," said Flatt, who became a suicide prevention advocate shortly after the 1993 suicide death of her son, Paul.

Flatt said another key component to addressing the issue immediately hinges on Gov. Kenny Guinn's recommendation to the Legislature to approve nearly $345,000 to fund suicide prevention measures passed in 2003 but never funded.

At the 2003 session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 49 that created a statewide suicide prevention program within the Department of Human Resources, with the understanding that the money to fund it for two years was available within that department's budget.

The bill created two positions -- a statewide coordinator based in Carson City and a trainer and network facilitator in Las Vegas. However, amid budget constraints, the money wound up not being available in the human resources budget to pay for the positions that today remain unfilled. Guinn, in his budget before the current Legislature, calls for $344,829 to fully fund the program. It includes salaries, operating costs, training, in-state travel, developing the plan and setting up the program in each county.

The coalition will next meet on April 29 at Montevista to hammer out goals and objectives based on what was learned at the conference in Oregon.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15- to-24-year-old Americans behind unintentional injuries and homicide, the Centers for Disease Control says, noting Nevada is ranked No. 4 in the nation in suicides with 19.5 deaths per 100,000 compared with the national average of 11 per 100,000 population.

Friends of Nick Weigle say they were shocked that he wound up as a suicide statistic because, by most outward appearances, he did not fit the stereotype of someone who is suicidal.

He had a good job as shift manager at the Pizza Hut of Southern Highlands and was a go-to guy who often was dispatched to other area Pizza Huts to pitch in when there were management shortages.

He had loving parents who supported his hopes and dreams that included one day owning his own restaurant. And he had a girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter for whom he cared deeply.

But, following an argument with his girlfriend on Feb. 14, Weigle went to his parents' home, laid down on his mother's side of the bed and used his stepfather's gun to end his life.

The Clark County Coroner ruled the cause of death as self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head -- suicide. Citing that information in coroner's reports is not public record, the coroner's office declined to release the results of toxicology tests or any information other than the cause and method.

Weigle's stepfather, Wayne Colosky, who also lost a brother to suicide, described Weigle's bouts of depression as "an ugly monster that would occasionally pop up."

But, Colosky said, Weigle would talk about his issues with family members "and he walked away happy. He had a good sense of humor most of the time."

After high school, Weigle had dedicated himself to his job, climbing from a crew man to a supervisor in just two years.

"He was jovial and a very hard worker who went above and beyond what was expected of him," said Weigle's boss at Pizza Hut, Ken Houghton, who also overcame clinical depression nine years ago with the help of medication that he no longer has to take.

"Nick would insist on cleaning up the restaurant at the end of the night shift, sending other employees home to save the company money. And he was well respected by those who worked for him because he would listen to their problems and he cared about their feelings."

Yappel said Weigle often said, "Me making other people happy makes me happy."

Local experts say detecting the warning signs of depression that can lead to suicide is not always easy because they vary in intensity from case to case.

"Suicide is a silent epidemic that comes down to education -- knowing what to look for and how to get the person help," said Tanner-Delgado of the Jason Foundation. "That includes, if necessary, calling Metro Police, which has a crisis intervention team that is trained in this area."

The Jason Foundation Inc. is a national prevention group that has long promoted programs such as Project Hug, which encourages parents to hug children when they leave home each day to reaffirm their love and care for them.

The organization bases its programs in part on four questions the CDC asks ninth to 12th graders during its annual survey on suicide trends. The results of the survey that utilized 2002 data -- the latest available -- found Nevada is above the national average in three of four areas:

Yappel has started a small fund she hopes will grow to one day help researchers identify potential suicidal tendencies early in a child's development. She said she does not want other parents to have to endure the feelings she has for not recognizing potential problems early enough to prevent her son's death.

The Nicholas P. Weigle Suicide Prevention Research Fund at the University of Nevada School of Medicine was started with a $50 gift from Yappel, a retail clerk. The fund was put on the school's Web site recently and has since grown to just over $600, a school official said.

"The fund certainly can take off as more people become aware of it," said Lynne Fullerton-Gleason, director of the Nevada School of Medicine's Suicide Prevention Research Center.

She said it "would be premature" to determine how the fund in its early stages could help the school's current research studies that include surveillance of suicide deaths in the region and surveying coroners investigation protocols that influence suicide certification.

"Although we have not been involved in this type of fundraising before, this fund can serve both as a starting point and as a means of allowing families the opportunity to remember loved ones lost to suicide by doing something they believe will help find some answers," Fullerton-Gleason said."

Lynda Tanner-Delgado

NEVADA COALITION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION

archive