Humboldt County’s coroner said yesterday that 34 people died by their own hand in 2007, the highest total since the 37 recorded when he began tracking the statistic in 1990.

The number represents a 60 percent increase over 2006 and may prove to be the highest per capita suicide rate in the country for last year, which would mean little has changed. California Department of Health and Human Services data show the county averaged 29 suicides annually in the three-year period ending in 2004.

During that three-year period, the county’s rough suicide rate per 100,000 people was 22.3 — three times Los Angeles County’s 7.1 and almost double Sonoma’s 13.5. The most recent statistic for California: a suicide rate of 9.4.

Healthy People 2010 set a national objective of 4.8 suicides per 100,000.

“We don’t call it a suicide unless we can absolutely prove it’s a suicide,” Coroner Frank Jäger said. “In reality, our suicide rate is probably higher than that because a lot of cases are listed as accidental overdoses.”

Jäger said the county recorded 38 deaths by accidental overdose.

“I’m sure some of those are suicides also, but we can’t absolutely prove it,” he said.

Jäger said a suicide note or an overdose caused by an off-the-chart ingestion are proof of suicide.

Henry Willey, a member of the Humboldt County Mental Health Board and the Far North regional director of the California Network of Mental Health Clients, believes it’s up to the community to come up with the resources to help people feel as though they don’t have to commit suicide.

The third of three suicide alternatives workshops he scheduled is set for Jan. 12 at 1 p.m. at St. Joseph Hospital’s C-1 Conference Room.

The Jan. 12 meeting will split 20 volunteers and newcomers into three committees: community education and outreach; peer-run programs to provide a resource other than the crisis line; and a public policy, resource-seeking group to “work with Mental Health to develop a suicide prevention plan for Humboldt County.”

“We are distressed anytime even one person takes his or her own life and we support all activities which heighten staff and public awareness of this very serious issue,” Humboldt County Mental Health Branch Director Karolyn Stein wrote in an e-mail.

“We do plan to involve our community stakeholders in Mental Health Services Act planning about prevention and early intervention strategies regarding suicide and also ways to focus on our high-risk populations so we can target outreach toward those people,” she wrote.

“You can’t look for government to solve all your problems,” Willey said. “It’s easy to ask why the community should have to do something that’s the responsibility of the county, but funding is always the problem and all we hear is cut, cut, cut.

“The county is not going to do it. Somebody has to do it, so here we are.”

In looking at its data, Stein said the county’s highest risk group has been males age 50 and older who have been drinking and have access to guns.

Jäger said gunshot wounds accounted for 16 of last year’s suicides.

Humboldt County may not be alone in seeing a rise in suicide numbers.

“Just yesterday, I read some reports about the number of people who leapt to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge during 2007,” Stein said. “There was a distressingly sharp rise from 20 to 38 people who were successful.”

Stein said the contributing factors to the bridge jumps were many and cited parallels with Humboldt County: substance abuse, poor economy, more people living longer and developing serious medical issues and also suffering major losses of friends and family members.

Humboldt County Suicides

2007 -- 34
2006 -- 21
2005 -- 32
2004 -- 27
2003 -- 31
2002 -- 28
2001 -- 27
2000 -- 24
1999 -- 21
1998 -- 18
1997 -- 27
1996 -- 27
1995 -- 27
1994 -- 30
1993 -- 24
1992 -- 17
1991 -- 16
1990 -- 37

Source: Humboldt County Coroner’s Office