It is important to recognize the broader picture when examining the impact of suicide in our communities. Suicide deaths, while representing tremendous loss, represent a small proportion of the numbers of individuals who experience suicidal thoughts and self-harm behavior. Evidence-based strategies and best practices to prevent suicide should be directed across the full spectrum of behaviors and life events that are associated with suicide risk. For example, a review of emergency department and hospitalization data, which includes people who are treated and released from emergency departments or hospitalization stays with self-harm injuries, illustrates a broader impact of suicide in our communities.

The following data on self-harm injuries presented in this report comes from hospital and emergency department visit records based on codes from the ICD-10-CM. (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification. See Analytic Notes in Appendix 4.) Emergency department visit data includes only non-fatal, treated and released visits. Hospitalization data includes only non-fatal hospital stays.

In Wisconsin, the age-adjusted rate of emergency department visits with self-harm injuries was 69.6 per 100,000, accounting for 7,482 visits from 2016–2017. The age-adjusted rate of hospitalization with self-harm injuries was 85.3 per 100,000, accounting for 9,398 admissions during the same time period.

Figure 6. Urban counties had a significantly higher rate of hospitalization with self-harm injuries when compared to rural counties from 2016–2017.

For emergency department visits with self-harm injuries, the rate for rural counties was 68.4 per 100,000 and 70.2 per 100,000 for urban counties from 2016-2017. However, these rates were not significantly different. (County rural and urban classification was determined using the National Center for Health Statistics 2013 Urban-Rural County Classification.)