People touched by suicide find support in St. Augustine

While organizations across the state and country work to expand access to mental health resources, the rate of deaths by suicide in Florida has stayed relatively consistent in recent years, even in comparatively well-off communities like St. Johns County. “Suicide affects everybody,” says Wendy Thompson, executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention North Florida. “I think that s the bottom line. It does not discriminate.” The North Florida chapter of the organization serves a chunk of Florida that ranges from Alachua County through St. Johns and Duval into Florida’s smallest county — rural Union County. Rural areas typically see higher suicide rates than urban areas. State data shows counties like Baker and Union more often than not have suicide rates higher than the state average. But it’s not just rural counties. St. Johns, with its high rates of immigration from other parts of the country, its highly-rated schools and its top-of-the-state average