MEGAN HENRY, Ohio Capital Journal — This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know needs support now, call, text or chat the 988 Lifeline.
Donna and Jeff Heck carry their daughter Dani’s obituary with them.
“We are part of the club that nobody wanted to be in,” Donna Heck said. “Part of the club that lost someone that we love and treasure to suicide. … The one thing that we learned the most is suicide does not care about your gender, your race, your political or religious beliefs or your socioeconomic status.”
Their daughter Dani took her life in February 2019. She was 33 and had a lifelong battle with depression.
“She was accomplished and bold and beautiful and successful,” Donna said. “Everything a parent would want, except she was fighting demons within with depression,” Donna said. “…We have learned that just because someone’s smiling, it doesn’t mean we’re okay.”
The Hecks were one of four families who shared their story about their loved one who died by suicide during an Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation press conference Tuesday morning at the Statehouse. September is National Suicide Prevention Month and Tuesday was World Suicide Prevention Day.
The number of Ohioans who died by suicide increased by 2% in 2022, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
There were 1,797 suicide deaths in Ohio in 2022 — the 13th-leading cause of death in Ohio, according to ODH’s Suicide Demographics and Trends 2022 report.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline moved to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline two years ago. Since then Ohio 19’s call centers have responded to nearly 340,000 calls, texts and chats — an average of more than 14,000 contacts each month.
Suicide was the second-leading cause of death among Ohioans ages 10-14 and 20-34 that year. Men accounted for 80% of Ohio suicide deaths, according to the ODH report.
Dave Rife shared about his son Matthew during the press conference.
“He was very charismatic, and everybody loved him,” he said. “He was just a very vibrant and outgoing person. On the inside, he was fighting a fight that very few people knew about.”
Matthew died on July 8, 2019.
“I lost my son to depression,” Rife said. “My hope is that we all come together to fight and break the stigma around mental health, because, let’s face it, mental health is nothing more than disease. It’s a disease of the brain, if we treat it as a disease, there should be no stigma around people should feel comfortable asking for help.”
Chris Grant lost her daughter Jayda to suicide on May 30, 2022. Her daughter was 20. Jayda was hospitalized for depression and anxiety, but her family did not receive any kind of support when she was discharged.
“I think that is one issue that needs to be addressed,” Grant said. “I think young people who are struggling with mental illness need support. … I don’t believe my daughter wanted to take her life, but I believe that the illness that she suffered was making it that much harder for her to live.”
Sandy Williams lost her father Jerry to suicide two days before his 75th birthday.
“Too often, when an older person is suffering from any kind of mental illness, it’s written off,” she said. “It’s just a sign of aging.”
She was 53 when her dad died.
“I still needed my dad and he should still be here today to be made a positive impact,” she said.
Men 75 and older has the highest rate of suicide deaths, according to the ODH report.
Jeff Heck wishes Ohio had more places that offered help after someone makes an attempt at their own life or experiences a mental health challenge.
“If you break a hip, if you have a cardiac event or a stroke, you go to rehab,” he said. “We don’t have that for mental health.”
A mental health rehabilitation center in Toledo called Dani’s Place was named in honor of his daughter Dani.
Athens has the Adam-Amanda Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, a clinic designed for people discharged from psychiatric hospitals who could use inpatient care. It opened in September 2018.
“We need one in every single community in Ohio and across the country,” Jeff said.