Silence is the biggest obstacle to preventing someone from committing suicide.

“But our takeaway is if you suspect something, you need to ask,” said Amy Peters, director of mental services with the Butler County Human Services Department. “It's a big myth that talking about suicide will put the idea in someone's head.”

“If you have a question, just ask,” she added, especially since suicides in Butler County are on the increase.

Peters, along with Tara Hamilton, a mental health specialist with the Butler County Human Services Department, are members of the Butler County Suicide Awareness Task Force, a group of mental/health social service providers, educators, and members of law enforcement, Veterans Affairs, churches and faith-based groups.

The group tries to prevent suicide, and to provide education and resources to help those who struggle with depression, survivors of suicide and those who have lost loved ones to suicide.

Peters said she formed the task force three years ago.

“It was in November 2013. During National Suicide Awareness Day, I took part in a national webinar.

“One of the things it suggested was form a suicide awareness task force,” Peters said. “Lots of counties in the region had one. We had one a long time ago.”

The Butler County coroner, Peters said, will specify that a death is a suicide only with overwhelming evidence.

There were 22 suicides in the county in 2013, 22 in 2014 and 24 in 2015.

So far, this year, there have been 17 suicides, Peters said.

“We are on the way to having an increase in suicides — although some are hard to figure out because they are drug overdoses,” Peters said. “It's hard to determine if an overdose was an accident or deliberate.

“Unless they leave a note, it's impossible to know if it was intentional.”

Still, she said, the group of county residents most likely to be affected by an increased suicide rate aren't drug abusers.

“Our highest risk group is white men, 40 to 65,” Peters said. “They are over half of our suicides.”

“And they are more likely to use a gun,” said Hamilton.

“We have theories about why that is,” said Peters. “It could be loss of physical health, loss of a job or a family member.”

“Whoever they are, they aren't in the mental health system, they haven't reached out to us for help,” said Peters.

“That speaks to the things we are doing,” said Hamilton. “We are trying to raise suicide awareness so that it gets to be something people are talking about.”

“And not be something that is stigmatized,” Peters added.

Events and resources

The group also provides education and resources to the survivors of a suicide attempt and those that have lost a loved one to suicide.

“We hold events that do a couple of things,” said Peters. “We try to share the experiences of those who have either attempted suicide or those that have lost someone to suicide.”

“And we have memorial events to remember those we have lost,” said Peters. “But the ultimate goal is to prevent suicide.”

Suicide prevention was the aim of two recent daylong symposiums put on by the group, one aimed at adults and one aimed at children.

Band Together 2016

The task force is staging the Band Together 2016 benefit Friday to raise money and awareness of the group.

The event came together, Peters said, because an uncle of a task force member is in the band The Pulse, which is donating its time for the cause.

WHAT: Band Together 2016WHEN: 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, doors open at 6:30 p.m.WHERE: American Legion Post 778, 150 Memorial Lane, LyndoraINFORMATION: ’80s and ’90s music by The Pulse.All proceeds will benefit the Butler County Suicide Awareness Task Force.The task force meets at 9 a.m. on the third Friday of every month in the Human Services Department in the courthouse annex, 124 W. Diamond St. For more information, call 724-284-5114 or visit the group’s Facebook page.