Somber walk caps month of suicide awareness in Ashland County

ASHLAND — It’s been almost 10 years since Sarah Watson lost her dad. 

She shared her tragic story through tears and smiles on Sunday, when she took the stage at Ashland County Mental Health and Recovery Board’s (MHRB) seventh annual Suicide Prevention and Awareness Walk.

Watson, a goalkeeper on Ashland University’s women’s soccer team, said her father, Brian, died by suicide on April 13, 2014. She shared details of the day it happened. 

“I remember seeing him at the top of the stairs. He came down to me and said, ‘everything’s going to be OK,’” Watson said.

As she went outside, she heard a gunshot. Brian Watson — who, according to his daughter, suffered from bipolar disorder — was gone.

Sarah Watson was 10 at the time. She said she struggled with her own mental health issues through middle and high school.

“I was bullied at school — they told me it was my fault,” she said. 

For a while, she said, she believed them, all while trying to be an advocate for mental health. But at 16, a doctor diagnosed her with clinical depression and anxiety. She started taking medication and listening to her own words. 

Today, she’s the soccer team’s “mental health girl” and an inspirational force around campus as an intern in its wellness program.

She also uses social media to spread mental health awareness messages.

“I’m an example of what can happen to someone when they come through,” she said to a crowd of around 100 people on Sunday who gathered at Ashland University’s John C. Meyer’s Convocation Center. 

The walk

Sunday’s event capped a month of suicide awareness and prevention efforts from the MHRB. Ashland County Commissioner Jim Justice officially proclaimed September as Suicide Awareness Month throughout the county. 

“This is the most personal event of the year for us,” said David Ross, MHRB’s director.

He said most people gathered Sunday either had a loved one die by suicide or knew someone close to them.

Ross led a group of around 100 people north on Claremont Avenue following Watson’s story. They then stopped at the Ashland County administrative office building, where Tim Chandler’s Silent Watch demonstration took place. Silent Watch honors military veterans who have died by suicide by standing guard next to an empty casket wrapped in an American flag. 

After five minutes of silence, the group trekked east on Main Street before turning right onto Center Street. The route then took the group west on College Avenue to end at the convocation center.

Once there, an MHRB staffer read the names of 17 people who died by suicide. The names had been written by people in attendance on Sunday.

Suicide by the numbers

There were 49,449 suicides in the U.S. last year, the highest on record. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the numbers but has not yet calculated a suicide rate for 2022. 

In Ohio, deaths by suicide increased in 2021 by 8% over the previous year to 1,766. That number, however, represents a slight decrease of 2018’s 10-year high of 1,836, according to the Ohio Department of Health. 

The numbers in Ashland County have decreased slightly. In 2021, there were seven deaths by suicide. In 2022, there were five.

A newly formed committee led by Ashland County Health Department found four of the five deaths in Ashland County last year were caused by gunshot wounds. 

Of those five deaths, two were females and three were males. The age range, according to the committee’s findings, was 23-57.