Suicide is a public health issue. One suicide death occurs every 12 minutes in the United States. In New York State, suicide is the second leading cause of injury-related deaths.

“Covering suicide carefully, even briefly, can change public misperceptions and correct myths, which can encourage those who are vulnerable or at risk to seek help,” says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s what we do at The Enterprise. Every suicide we write about is painful. Each person embodies a universe and, when one life is snuffed out, the effects ripple, like a stone tossed in a pond. The hurt for the friends and family of a person who killed himself can last a lifetime.

We wrote three weeks ago about a man who killed himself at the Hannacroix Ravine Preserve. He was just 55. In the story about his death, we also wrote about his life — how kind and stoic he was, the sort of work he did.

He is not alone. On June 7, the CDC released a Vital Signs report showing that suicide rates between 1999 and 2016 went up more than 30 percent in half the states; in New York, the increase was 28.8 percent. Nearly 45,000 lives were lost to suicide in 2016.

Forty-six percent of people who died by suicide had a mental-health condition. People with mental-health problems who can’t afford health care face an uphill battle. President Donald Trump  has proposed cutting into the Medicaid program, which serves over 70 million Americans with disabilities or low income.

A study published four years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry found that therapists are the least likely of all medical providers to accept insurance; only 55 percent of psychiatrists accepted insurance plans compared with 89 percent of other health-care providers.

Without adequate Medicaid coverage, we believe the problem will worsen.

But states and communities can make a difference, the CDC report says.

“Mental health conditions are often seen as the cause of suicide, but suicide is rarely caused by any single factor ...” the report says. “Other problems often contribute to suicide, such as those related to relationships, substance use, physical health, and job, money, legal, or housing stress. Making sure government, public health, healthcare, employers, education, the media and community organizations are working together is important for preventing suicide.”

We’re pleased that New York State last year started a Suicide Prevention Task Force — made up of leaders from local governments, state agencies, not-for-profit groups, and experts in suicide prevention — focused on prevention in high-risk groups, including veterans, adolescents, and those in the LGBT community.

Earlier this month, the governor announced that New York will be the first state in the nation to launch a pilot program aimed at reducing new suicide attempts by people who have tried to kill themselves before; the program reframes how suicide attempts are examined, viewing suicide as an action taken to reach a goal rather than simply a symptom of mental illness.

The program, developed in Switzerland and known as the Attempted Suicide Short Intervention Program, takes place over just three sessions. In the first session, a patient is video-recorded, telling the story of how he came to harm himself. During the second session, the patient and a trained therapist view the video together. In the third session, plans for strategies to avoid future suicidal behavior are mapped out and, upon the patient’s request, given to family members, and treatment providers.

A study of 120 people who had recently attempted suicide — 60 in a control group and 60 treated in the short intervention program —  found that, after two years, one person had died by suicide in both the treated group and the control group, but only five repeated attempts were made in the treated group, compared with 41 in the control group.

The study describes the intervention as low-cost and easy to administer. “While the causes of suicide are complex, the goals of suicide prevention are simple — reduce factors that increase risk, and increase factors that promote resilience or coping,” the study says. “A previous suicide attempt is the main risk factor for repeat attempts and for completed suicide.”

We hope this pilot program is successful, and, if so, that it is replicated far and wide.

In the meantime, we want our readers to know that the state’s Office of Mental Health recently partnered with Crisis Text Line, a national not-for-profit group that provides free around-the-clock text-based support for people in crisis, helping people facing suicidal thoughts, cyberbullying, family emergencies, maternal depression, and more. Users are connected to a trained crisis counselor by texting “GOT5” to 741-741. Data usage is free and text messages are confidential, anonymous, and secure. This is in addition to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

In May, the state’s Department of Health launched the NYS Health Connector, an application highlighting a data dashboard of suicide in the state, which is meant to help agencies, coalitions, and communities set up suicide prevention initiatives.

The CDC advises states and communities to identify and support people at risk of suicide, so New York is off to a good start. The CDC also suggests offering activities to bring people together so they feel connected and not alone; to offer help for those struggling to make ends meet; and to teach coping and problem-solving skills so people can manage challenges with their relationships, jobs, health, and other concerns.

Finally, the CDC report has this advice that each one of us can follow: “Everyone can learn the signs of suicide, how to respond, and where to access help.” The 12 warning signs are: feeling like a burden, being isolated, feeling increased anxiety, feeling trapped or in unbearable pain, increased substance use, looking for a way to access lethal means, increased anger or rage, extreme mood swings, expressing hopelessness, sleeping too little or too much, talking or posting about wanting to die, or making plans for suicide.

The CDC then lists these five steps to help someone at risk: Ask, keep them safe, be there, help them connect, follow up.

If all else fails and someone you love has killed themselves, help is offered through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which provides toolkits for schools and workplaces after a suicide, bereavement clinicians, and support groups.

We were moved to tears by the truth Brian Barr spoke during a recent Enterprise podcast. Mr. Barr has spent a lifetime helping troubled youth and said it was a “bitter, bitter pill” to swallow when his son, Kevin, killed himself at age 18.

“How the heck could this happen to my own son?” he asked, describing Kevin as a sensitive boy, who had great empathy for others and felt pain acutely. Kevin had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and Mr. Barr came to realize that his suicide was because he was in excruciating pain. “That’s what suicide is,” he said. “It’s not a matter of choice.”

Mr. Barr has taught workshops and helped others who have had someone they love die of suicide. He described a young woman who for years was mad at her father for killing himself, leaving her mother to raise four children alone. Mr. Barr got the young woman to talk about what kind of person her father had been before he died and she came to realize that he had been a good person and that he hadn’t killed himself to hurt the people he loved but rather to escape his pain.

Mr. Barr is distressed when federal or state agencies put out literature indicating suicide is preventable. “Please don’t put it out that way,” said Mr. Barr. “Put out: We may prevent suicide … We don’t know that we can prevent suicide … We don’t know what causes suicide.”

Mr. Barr wants not only to lift the stigma of suicide but to lift the blame or guilt that society often assigns to it. He describes someone at a casket saying to a person who has lost a family member to suicide, “You must be angry at him.”

“If you lost your loved one to cancer, to pneumonia, are you angry at them?” Mr. Barr asks. “That’s a heck of a thing. The person was sick.” He doesn’t blame people who assume anger or guilt are part of the aftermath for families who have suffered a suicide; he says those people are just trying to be solicitous, which is better than ignoring the suicide altogether.

“It’s just because the information’s not out there,” says Mr. Barr.

As we have for decades, we at The Enterprise will continue to put out the latest and most helpful information we can find about suicide.

We need to work together — yes, government agencies and schools — but also workplaces and community organizations, and, most importantly, individuals. Let’s try to ease the pain, not make it worse.