What is it about?
Living in rural communities can feel isolating in ways most people cannot imagine. In remote Alaskan villages, mail and groceries must often be flown in, and mental health services are sparse or nonexistent. In rural Colorado, farming and ranching families face economic instability, loss of agricultural identity, and social isolation. Across these regions, people experience high rates of suicide, substance misuse, and trauma. My work as an addiction and family therapist has shown that these challenges are shaped not only by geography and economics but also by culture, gender, and historical experiences. Research by Rawat et al. (2025) highlights that men in rural areas are more likely to die by suicide, while women are more likely to attempt it. In Alaska, young Indigenous men are particularly vulnerable due to isolation, trauma, and pressures to suppress emotion. In Colorado, male farmers and ranchers often face stigma around seeking help and extreme financial stress, increasing suicide risk. Women in both regions encounter unique challenges, including caregiving burdens, emotional neglect, and compounded trauma. Alcohol misuse is a common coping mechanism in both regions, yet it can worsen isolation and prevent help-seeking. Effective interventions must be culturally responsive and gender-informed. In Alaska, reconnecting individuals to Indigenous traditions, language, and healing practices has proven protective. In Colorado, helping people rebuild connection to agricultural heritage and community reduces isolation and promotes resilience. These findings demonstrate that suicide prevention in rural communities requires addressing not just individual mental health, but broader systems of culture, identity, and social support.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
This article is unique in its combination of empirical research and lived clinical experience across geographically and culturally distinct rural regions. By connecting Rawat et al.’s findings with firsthand observations from Alaska and Colorado, it highlights the critical role of cultural identity, historical trauma, gender, and systemic isolation in rural suicidality. The piece is timely because suicide rates in rural America continue to outpace urban areas, yet interventions often neglect regional and cultural contexts. This perspective advances mental health practice by emphasizing culturally humble, gender-sensitive, and system-oriented approaches, providing actionable insights for clinicians, policymakers, and community organizations working to reduce suicide and promote resilience in isolated communities.
Perspectives
As someone who has worked extensively in remote Alaskan villages and rural Colorado farming communities, I have seen firsthand how geographic isolation, trauma, and cultural disconnection exacerbate suicide risk. In Alaska, extreme weather, lack of infrastructure, and historical trauma create layers of vulnerability, particularly for young Indigenous men and women navigating intergenerational trauma. In Colorado, the pressures of maintaining agricultural livelihoods amid economic instability create a different, but equally serious, set of stressors. My clinical experience confirms and extends the findings of Rawat et al. (2025). Isolation interacts with alcohol misuse, gendered expectations, and trauma to form complex, overlapping risk pathways. For example, men in both regions face strong social pressures to suppress emotional expression, which increases their risk for lethal suicide, while women often carry the emotional and caregiving burden of families and communities, leading to high rates of non-lethal suicide attempts. I have found that interventions focused solely on individual-level treatment often fail. Addressing suicidality in these communities requires culturally responsive, gender-sensitive, and systems-oriented strategies. Reconnecting individuals to Indigenous practices in Alaska or agricultural heritage and community networks in Colorado has been a powerful protective factor. This work emphasizes that suicide prevention must account for culture, identity, and social context, not just mental health symptoms.
Assoc. Prof. Ezra N. S. Lockhart
National University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Insights into suicidality in rural communities: Lessons from Rawat et al. (2025) and perspectives from Alaska and Colorado, The Journal of Rural Health, June 2025, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/jrh.70046.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
