Local News

Many of us are jugglers and magicians by trade; we just didn’t recognize our talents. As workers and employees, we juggle multiple demands and schedules, on and off the clock.

At the end of our shifts, many of us head home to take care of other family members. These family members are not necessarily minor children, but rather mothers, fathers or other aging family members. Their needs must be juggled with responsibilities to our employers. Somehow, it seems through magic, their needs are met, even if the caregiver is the one that struggles.

Tea-Party backed gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett on Saturday vowed to join other states in a federal lawsuit against national health care reform and said he would lobby for an “Arizona-style” law that would tighten down on illegal immigrants by requiring employers and landlords in the state to verify citizenship.

The risk for suicide is not limited to teens and young adults.

In fact, the suicide rate among older adults continues to be the highest among any age group in the U.S., said Karen Ross, home care coordinator at VNA Nazareth Home Health in Elizabethtown.

Age groupings vary for suicide rates, but in Hardin County from 2001 to 2010, 38.7 percent of suicides were residents 50 or older. The oldest person to commit suicide in Hardin County in that time range was an 86-year-old man.

Their lives have just begun. But somewhere, somehow, they’ve absorbed enough pain to want to quit living.

Since 2004, three teens have died by suicide in Hardin County, according to the Hardin County coroner. The youngest suicide victim was 13 years old.

While it is easy to picture a teen or a younger child as a being full of optimism and potential, youth are not immune to the risk factors of suicide. Psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, instability at home and other issues lead to suicidal behavior in children, just as in adults.