The Union Democrat by Alex Maclean
If given a second chance at life, how would you choose to use it?
Kevin Hines, 36, of Atlanta, and Ken Baldwin, 60, of Angels Camp, are among the rare few who survived attempts at suicide by jumping off of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Now, both men are speaking out in an effort to keep others from making the irreversible decision to end their own lives.
“We have a massive problem here,” Baldwin said of suicide in the Mother Lode. “It’s rural, the poverty level is significant, there are drugs up here, and all of that produces this bowl of depression.”
The men shared their personal experiences Wednesday night to an audience of roughly 100 at the Bret Harte High School Theater as part of an event organized by the Calaveras County Behavioral Health Division aimed at raising awareness about suicide and offering advice for prevention.
Information about the number of suicides in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties for 2016 were not readily available, but the most recent report by the California Department of Public Health showed the rates of suicide between 2013 and 2015 in both counties were among the highest in the state.
According to the report, the three-year average rate is calculated based on the number of suicides per 100,000.
California as a whole had an average rate of 10.6 suicides a year between 2013 and 2015, while the average rate for Tuolumne County was 19.5 and Calaveras County was 30.8. The actual three-year averages were 10.7 in Tuolumne County and 14 in Calaveras County.
Kaybee Alvarado, community health assistant for the Calaveras County Behavioral Health Division, said studies have shown two of the main reasons suicide rates are higher in rural areas is because of isolation and access to guns.
“That’s across all of the rural counties,” Alvarado said.
That’s why the Calaveras County Behavioral Health Division and other organizations in the community have spearheaded initiatives aimed at reducing the social stigma surrounding suicide and improving open communication about the topic.
Baldwin said he believes fear is the main reason for the stigma that hinders dialogue about suicide.
“Many people are afraid of the word suicide because there’s finality to it,” Baldwin said.
Sparking conversation about suicide was the goal of a community event Wednesday night at the Bret Harte High School theater in Angels Camp, where Baldwin and Hines shared their similar experiences with a crowd who ranged in age from students to senior citizens.
The two first met 10 years ago for a news story about how each had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and survived, but they didn’t see each other again until earlier this year.
Baldwin said he was taken by surprise when he found out that Hines was scheduled to speak at the school where he has worked as a teacher since 1993.
In August 1985, Baldwin jumped from the landmark bridge after struggling with deep depression for years. He had previously attempted to kill himself three years earlier by taking a bottle of sleeping pills mixed with alcohol shortly after the birth of his daughter.
Baldwin’s wife, Ellen, said the couple’s biggest mistake was not talking about his struggles after the first attempt. After jumping from the bridge, Baldwin said he knew that he had to open up to his family.
“Once I was in the hospital bed, I realized I wouldn’t be able to hide this one,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin said he still struggles with depression and has bad days, but now he knows he can lean on his wife to help him through it.
“She’s my rock, she’s my hero, she keeps me sane, she keeps me going, she tells me I’m a good person, and I believe her,” Baldwin said. “I’m lucky because some people don’t have someone they can believe in.”
In September 2000, a 19-year-old Hines attempted to take his own life by jumping from the same bridge that Baldwin had jumped from 15 years earlier.
Hines told the audience Wednesday night about his upbringing and long struggles with bipolar disorder prior to the attempt. He said that he openly sobbed on the bus ride to the bridge and while standing on the walkway hoping someone would ask him what was wrong, but no one did.
“Apathy, maybe fear … that’s where I think society has lost its way,” Hines said. “We have forgotten as a society that if we are not anything else on this planet we are one thing — our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
“And you don’t have to have faith in a higher power to know that.”
Hines spoke with passionate conviction about the importance of being kind to others and peppered his hour-plus speech with humor to lighten the mood and keep people engaged whenever the story took a dark turn.
Hines spoke with passionate conviction about the importance of being kind to others and peppered his hour-plus speech with humor to lighten the mood and keep people engaged whenever the story took a dark turn.
People shouldn’t feel like they are defined by their own thoughts, Hines said.
“If all of our thoughts became our actions, how many of us would be in jail for road rage?” Hines asked the audience to a show of scattered raised hands, which prompted a joke about how California Highway Patrol officers were taking notes at the event.
“Just because you have thoughts of suicide doesn’t mean that you have to act on them, no matter the pain they cause you,” Hines said. “Our thoughts do not have to own us, define us, or rule the day.”
The goal of his motivational speaking, Hines said, is to let people know that they should express how they feel without fear of judgment and help others understand what to do when others are in crisis.
Hines said the best question people can ask someone who they suspect may be at risk of harming themselves is the most blunt one: Are you suicidal? He believes he likely would not have taken the 220-foot plunge from the bridge if someone had asked him that question.
One effective suicide-prevention program noted by Baldwin was QPR, which stands for Question, Persuade and Refer. Started in 2009, the program aims to provide training in suicide prevention for community “gatekeepers” such as teachers, students, parents, employers and spiritual leaders.
Meanwhile, there is also work underway to install suicide barriers at the Golden Gate Bridge after more than 1,600 deaths since it opened in 1937. Fewer than 30 people are believed to have survived the fall.
Completion of the barriers is anticipated in early 2021.
The number for the national crisis line is (800) 273-8255.
