Good morning supporters of Hailey's Legacy, and a continued note of gratitude for the support and sharing of Hailey's Legacy to your loved ones for more support!
Today, Friday, January 31, 2025, is only 21 days from the day when Hailey put a gun to her beautiful head and could not see any other way to get through her difficulties in this life.
I am working diligently with legislators to get all information about this petition and Hailey's Legacy Bill submitted for this 100th legislative session in Pierre, SD.
We are compromising from the original formation of this bill, to make it as bipartisan and easy to absorb as possible in all belief systems. Originally, this bill was to cover voluntary AND involuntary holds, as well as those persons on anti-psychotics, but now we have compromised to involuntary holds only at the moment. The reason for the compromise is that if we do the anti-psychotics, it is estimated that it will cost the state approximately $40M to $50M to create and sustain a new database for those individuals (as per the legislative research committee), and also because we have made the ultimate conclusion that if someone goes in on a voluntary hold that these persons are reaching out for help and at least have the realization that they need help. Persons on an involuntary hold may not understand how much help they need.
Psychiatry Online (an affiliate of Psychiatric News) reports 'that the suicide rate of patients in the first three months after discharge was approximately 100 times the global suicide rate of 11.4 per 100,000 patients per year in 2012. Patients admitted with suicidal thoughts and behaviors had rates nearly 200 times the global rate. Even many years after they were discharged, previous psychiatric inpatients had suicide rates that were approximately 30 times higher than typical global rates, according to the authors."
The South Dakota Department of Health information reports the following as well:
In South Dakota, guns are the most common method used in suicides, accounting for 49% of all suicide deaths in 2023. Here are some other statistics about gun-related suicides in South Dakota: [1]
2023: 79% of gun-related deaths in South Dakota were suicides. [2]
2022: 77% of violent deaths in South Dakota were suicides, and 50% of those were firearm-related. [3]
2021: South Dakota had 202 suicide deaths, the highest ever recorded. [4]
Gender: Males are nearly five times more likely to die by firearm suicide than females. [5]
Age: In 2022, 33% of all gun suicide deaths were over the age of 54. [5]
Race: Firearms are most common among the White population. [1]
The South Dakota Department of Health's Suicide Data Dashboard allows users to view suicide data by year, demographic, county, method, and more. [4][
We must get lawmakers to take suicide and mental health seriously, and help us to keep our loved ones safe when our loved ones are in crisis and unable to keep themselves safe.
I pledge to you all, in my daughter's name, that we will not be defeated in this fight for justice.
References
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2017.7a17
1] https://doh.sd.gov/media/4yvcpdxz/2023-suicide-surveillance-report.pdf
[2] https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-people-die-from-gun-related-injuries-in-the-us-each-month/state/south-dakota/
[3] https://doh.sd.gov/health-data-reports/injury-prevention/violent-death-reporting-system/
[4] https://doh.sd.gov/health-data-reports/injury-prevention/suicide-data-reports/
[5] https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/south-dakota