Utah declares September a month for suicide prevention and awareness

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson joined suicide prevention advocates and other state officials on Wednesday in reminding Utahns to keep a close eye on loved ones and emphasizing the 988 hotline is available for anyone who needs to talk.

Henderson read a proclamation declaring September a month of awareness for suicide prevention and said “a significant act of bravery is not only speaking up when we need help, but noticing and then acting when we see things in others.”

A total of 709 Utahns took their own lives in 2025, Henderson said, noting barriers to getting help include a lack of resources. But she said bystanders can intervene and help by staying alert for warning signs and knowing where to turn for help. 

Lindsay and Matt Albrecht fought emotion at the Capitol as they spoke about her brother Quinn, of Holden, who took his own life in 2024. A fixture in Utah’s rodeo community, he was a doting father and husband and a talented roper, she said. 

Matt Albrecht spoke of his own experience with lifelong depression and suicidal ideation, but didn’t realize Quinn was in crisis at the time of his death. Looking back, he remembers his brother-in-law saying about a month earlier that he was feeling so poorly, he almost came to Albrecht’s house.

In hindsight, he sees the conversation as Quinn reaching out for help. 

“I didn’t say, ‘you’re welcome any time,’” Albrecht recalled, pausing to compose himself. Going forward, he said, “I will notice the signs and speak up and make myself available to prevent suicide.”

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, said the national 988 “lifeline” has a Utah genesis. More than a decade ago, he and former Utah Sen. Daniel Thatcher made several attempts to bring about a three-digit mental health crisis line, he recalled, but they were unsuccessful.

So they took their idea to members of Utah’s congressional delegation, urging former Utah Rep. Chris Stewart and the late Sen. Orrin Hatch to take on the cause. The Federal Communications Commission and Congress established 988 as the national crisis line in 2020, and the resource  launched nationwide in 2022.

At the news conference on Wednesday, he joined other officials and advocates in writing messages of encouragement and support on blue sticky notes. They posted them to two panels forming a corner of a partial, makeshift room in the Capitol rotunda, saying the display seeks to emphasize to Utahns that “we’re in your corner.”  

Eliason noted a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April recorded nearly 4,400 fewer suicides among young adults and teenagers than had been predicted in the hotline’s first two-and-a-half years. 

Utah’s rate has declined in the last decade, he said, adding, “let’s keep this momentum going.”