Our thinking on mental health troubles and news

As a newspaper, we actually try not to cover certain stories if they’re arising from an individual’s personal mental health problems.

It’s not unusual to get a report that authorities have responded to an individual in distress, or worse. But if someone threatens to do themselves harm, most often it seems far less likely that a news story would help either the individual or society, which might only suffer greater loss if a news article placed more pressure on an already bad situation for that individual. Most of the time.

But it was difficult to follow that leaning of ours last week when likely thousands of people were affected by the actions of one such individual.

We hope he can get the help he needs, and that hope has to be part of the coverage too.

For years, many people have been saying that mental health care in this country is inadequate or even broken. And that was even before our collective isolation during Covid lockdowns seemed to make every raw feeling more likely to throb.

Last week a man shut down a state highway by sitting on top of the Columbia River Bridge in Coulee Dam for nearly five hours. And last month, students at Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High School made a case to the school board for full-time counselors at the school. Yesterday, President Joe Biden signed a proclamation declaring it World Suicide Prevention Day.

It’s very evident we’re hurting.

It was also evident last week that very good people care a lot, even about someone they may not even know. One of them, not a professional counselor, played a significant role in getting the young man down from the bridge. That had to be emotionally draining. He doesn’t want to be identified, but he should know he’s appreciated.

On that day, some people objected to our online use of a photo of the bridge containing a spec of an unidentifiable image of someone on top of the bridge. The photo was chosen out of those we had, or those we had been provided by others, because it showed what was happening but it did not show who was involved, even as long lines of traffic waited or detoured long distances to cross the river.

We changed the photo for this issue and hope more readers find it acceptable.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher