The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, December 27, 2018, Image 21

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The daily Astorian., December 27, 2018, Page A2, Image 21

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Newspaper Page TextA2 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2018 Animal shelters are a potential ally in suicide ﬁ ght By MOLLY HARBARGER The Oregonian The Washington County animal shelter is not often the ﬁ rst line of defense against suicide. But over the span of three months, shelter staff intervened with seven people who planned to kill themselves. Most people who are considering suicide will say “yes” if asked if they plan to commit suicide. The prob- lem is to know when to ask the question. An unusual collaboration between the Washington County public health depart- ment and the medical exam- iner’s ofﬁ ce has ﬁ gured out a simple way to do that. It appears to be paying off. Kimberly Repp, an epi- demiologist, has earned national praise for a form she developed that death investigators ﬁ ll out when they determine the cause of a suspicious death. The information provides more recent data about suicides in Washington County than state or federal reporting systems. The database is then used to identify trends Washington County Kimberly Repp, an epidemiologist, and Charles Lovato, a death investigator, teamed up to create a database that has led to better suicide prevention eﬀ orts in Washington County. that can strengthen Wash- ington County’s suicide pre- vention services. For instance, several death investigators in one month wrote that the subject gave up a pet to the shelter before dying. Repp took that informa- tion to the animal shelter staff, volunteers and veter- inarians, who agreed to be trained in identifying peo- ple who might want to hurt themselves and how to intervene. Her model takes about two minutes to collect the data, and ofﬁ cials say it is saving lives. FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TONIGHT FRIDAY SATURDAY 49 46 40 Cloudy with a passing shower late Occasional rain and drizzle ALMANAC Mostly cloudy New Salem 37/46 Newport 42/49 Jan 5 Coos Bay 40/51 Full Jan 13 UNDER THE SKY Ontario 24/38 Burns 15/31 Klamath Falls 14/35 Lakeview 12/31 Ashland 26/45 REGIONAL CITIES City Baker City Bend Brookings Eugene Ilwaco Klamath Falls Medford Newberg Newport North Bend Source: Jim Todd, OMSI TOMORROW'S TIDES Astoria / Port Docks Low 2.6 ft. Hi 35 36 52 48 48 36 44 46 49 52 Today Lo 20 20 39 35 42 14 27 37 42 41 W c c pc pc c c c pc pc c Hi 34 38 54 47 49 35 45 44 49 53 Fri. Lo 25 29 40 36 47 17 29 41 44 40 W pc pc pc c r pc pc sh pc pc City Olympia Pendleton Portland Roseburg Salem Seaside Spokane Springfi eld Vancouver Yakima Hi 44 36 47 48 48 48 29 47 46 39 Today Lo 33 25 39 35 37 41 20 35 38 25 W c sf c pc pc pc c c pc c Hi 43 37 45 49 46 49 29 46 44 34 Fri. Lo 41 33 43 35 41 46 28 37 41 27 W r c r pc c r sn pc r i TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER NATIONAL CITIES Hi 54 36 50 32 60 43 53 -3 83 52 62 54 65 63 80 62 73 41 50 45 60 31 58 45 50 Dec. 26, 2018 HEBERT, Gerald Wayne, 72, of Gearhart, died in Gear- hart. Caldwell’s Luce-Lay- ton Mortuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. SPEAR, John Edward, 86, of Seaside, died in Sea- Baker 20/34 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018 Time 12:00 p.m. none Today Lo 52 31 44 10 26 42 36 -13 71 50 22 37 46 45 74 58 64 38 25 40 33 20 44 36 45 W sh s r sf t r pc c pc r t pc s t sh r t pc pc pc r sf s pc pc Hi 68 52 44 26 29 55 53 -1 79 52 32 51 62 55 82 63 68 58 40 59 42 28 58 46 62 Fri. Lo 51 47 26 9 10 28 35 -8 70 29 15 35 41 34 73 33 58 48 22 49 23 13 41 43 51 The answer sat across the hall. Charles Lovato has been a medicolegal death investi- side. Caldwell’s Funeral & Cremation Arrange- ment Center in Seaside is in charge of arrangements. Dec. 25, 2018 JARVIS, Carolyn Kay, 76, of Warrenton, died in Seaside. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. REITH, Laura, 98, of Astoria, died in Warren- ton. Caldwell’s Luce-Lay- ton Mortuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. Unusual partnership DEATHS La Grande 22/33 Roseburg 35/49 Brookings 40/55 Jan 20 John Day 21/32 Bend 20/38 Medford 27/45 Tonight's Sky: Johannes Kepler?s birthday (1571). High 8.8 ft. 7.9 ft. Prineville 19/38 Lebanon 36/46 Eugene 35/47 First Pendleton 25/37 The Dalles 30/41 Portland 39/45 Sunset tonight ........................... 4:36 p.m. Sunrise Friday ............................. 7:58 a.m. Moonrise today ........................ 10:58 p.m. Moonset today .......................... 11:42 a.m. City Atlanta Boston Chicago Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Fairbanks Honolulu Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Memphis Miami Nashville New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Seattle Washington, DC Mostly cloudy with a passing shower Tillamook 40/48 SUN AND MOON Time 5:59 a.m. 5:44 p.m. Mostly cloudy and breezy; p.m. showers 47 35 Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs. ASTORIA 40/49 Precipitation Wednesday ....................................... 0.29" Month to date ................................... 7.53" Normal month to date ....................... 8.34" Year to date .................................... 60.92" Normal year to date ........................ 65.71" Dec 29 MONDAY 49 35 REGIONAL WEATHER Astoria through Wednesday. Temperatures High/low ....................................... 51°/37° Normal high/low ........................... 48°/37° Record high ............................ 64° in 1980 Record low ............................. 19° in 1924 Last SUNDAY 53 43 Better data Five years ago, Repp was tasked with the annual state- wide survey of health needs by each county. Through that process, Washington County resi- dents said again and again that suicide was one of their biggest concerns. So Repp started to look at what she could glean from the state and national data to help suicide prevention efforts in the area. She was stymied. Oregon is a found- ing member of the Violent Death Reporting System, a national effort to pro- vide states with informa- tion about violent deaths — which include suicides — to help craft health policy and gator for 32 years. He joined Washington County’s medi- cal examiner’s ofﬁ ce seven years ago. His job, along with a team of death investigators, is to show up to the scene of any violent or suspicious death and ﬁ gure out the likely cause of death. To do so, he examines the body and on-scene evi- dence, interviews witnesses and tracks down friends and family. He then writes up a report with a narrative of what he thinks happened and submits that to the med- ical examiner. Much of that information is scraped into the state and federal databases and then aggregated. But Lovato’s work often extends beyond what shows up in the report. His job has traditionally been to eval- uate all the information he collects in a binary way — is it relevant to the cause of death or not? If not, then it usually doesn’t end up in any of the resulting data sets. Repp wanted to know what wasn’t in there, so she approached the death inves- tigation team and asked a question few people do — could she tag along to some crime scenes? Lovato was surprised that all that information that never makes it into reports could be useful beyond watercooler talk in the ofﬁ ce. He knew that much of what he reports is used in state and national trend lines, but he had never worked with public health ofﬁ cials before and didn’t know what could make his data better. guide law enforcement. But by the time a local public health worker could access that information, it’s about 3 to 4 years old. Vital statistics in death certiﬁ cates only told Repp who is most likely to com- mit suicide, not why. Plus, Washington County is not well-represented by state data, because its demo- graphics tend to be super- lative. The county has the most diverse population by race and ethnicity, the high- est birth rate and the lowest death rate. Repp needed better data — a surprise in a state with among the highest suicide rates in the country. A federal report released this summer said that, on average, two people a day die by suicide in Oregon. The rate increased by 17.8 people per 100,000 over the year before. That puts Oregon with the 16th-highest suicide rate in the country, but the trend is national. All but one state had an increase in sui- cide deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Oregon Health Authority has prioritized suicide prevention, espe- cially among children and young adults. Public health ofﬁ cials agree that suicide is largely preventable. But Repp wanted to ﬁ gure out how. Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. W r r c c c c sh c t pc pc pc s pc c r r r pc r c pc s r r Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. CLATSOP POWER EQUIPMENT , INC. SALES SERVICE RENTALS • PUBLIC MEETINGS THURSDAY Clatsop County Recreational Lands Planning and Advisory Committee, 1 to 3 p.m., fourth ﬂ oor, 800 Exchange St. ON THE RECORD Domestic assault • Late Wednesday, War- renton p olice arrested Jef- fery John Fletcher, 33, of Warrenton, on two charges of fourth-degree domes- tic assault and one count of third-degree assault. A heavily intoxicated Fletcher struck a 2-year- old in the face before ﬁ ght- ing with a female occu- pant of the house and later a 16-year-old, according to police. He was taken to the hospital for a med- ical evaluation related to his high blood alcohol con- tent before being lodged in the Clatsop County Jail. • Around 3 p.m. Sat- urday, Warrenton police arrested Sara Jane Welch, 58, of Warrenton, for fourth-degree assault and harassment. Welch got into a ﬁ ght with a female roommate, spitting at and punching her, according to police. • Around 6 p.m. Sat- urday, Warrenton police arrested Christopher Michael Peterson, 30, of Warrenton, for fourth-de- gree assault. Peterson got in a ﬁ ght with his signiﬁ - cant other in front of their children, according to police. Peterson eventu- ally picked her up off the ﬂ oor and threw her into a folding closet, causing minor injuries, police said. The assault charge was enhanced because of the presence of children. Burglary • Early Monday, Sea- side police arrested Kevin Edward Walsh, 24, of Sea- side, for fourth-degree assault, ﬁ rst-degree bur- glary, ﬁ rst-degree criminal mischief, second-degree escape and harassment. A call came into police around 12:50 p.m. Sun- day of two unknown peo- ple entering an apartment without permission and refusing to leave. Walsh fought with a male in the residence before ﬂ eeing with Candice S. Kimb- ley, 23, of Seaside, police said. Police later appre- hended Walsh and Kim- bley, who was arrested for ﬁ rst-degree criminal trespassing. 15-23-29-33-41-42 Estimated jackpot: $6 million Wednesday’s Powerball: 05-25-38-52-67, Powerball: 24, Power Play: 2 Estimated jackpot: $294 million WASHINGTON Wednesday’s Daily Game: 7-2-7 Wednesday’s Hit 5: 05-07-14- 16-31 Estimated jackpot: $100,000 Wednesday’s Keno: 05-09-10- 13-21-25-33-39-41-44-47-48- 49-51-52-71-76-77-78-79 Wednesday’s Lotto: 09-18-19- 27-33-35 Estimated jackpot: $2.1 million Wednesday’s Match 4: 01-03- 15-22 LOTTERIES OREGON Wednesday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 1-9-6-3 4 p.m.: 5-2-6-5 7 p.m.: 0-2-5-1 10 p.m.: 4-0-6-2 Wednesday’s Lucky Lines: 04-08-11-15-FREE-18-23-28-31 Estimated jackpot: $27,000 Wednesday’s Megabucks: Subscription rates Eﬀ ective July 1, 2015 • Established July 1, 1873 (USPS 035-000) Published daily, except Saturday and Sunday, by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325- 6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 DailyAstorian.com MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 34912 HWY 101 BUS • ASTORIA 503-325-0792 • 1-800-220-0792 Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St. Astoria Planning Commission, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper. SUBSCRIBER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. 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