Alaska youth and advocates urge support for suicide prevention, state funding for 988 crisis line
- Alaska Beacon
- 19 hours ago
- 5 min read
Legislation introduced in the Alaska House and Senate would enact a surcharge on phone lines to fund mental health services, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for Alaska
By Corinne Smith
Alaska Beacon
Toksook Bay youth joined advocates at the Alaska State Capitol as survivors of suicide loss to raise awareness for suicide prevention, and urge state support for funding mental health services, including the state’s 988 crisis line.
“I’ve lost a couple people to suicide. It made me feel like my family was broken,” said Jacob Nicolai, a 20-year-old from Toksook Bay in Western Alaska. “Losing a loved one through suicide is hard. It can feel like a part of you is gone too. It takes a long time to forgive and accept.”
A pair of bills now in the Alaska House and Senate, House Bill 138 and Senate Bill 196, would implement a $0.98 surcharge per month on all phone lines in Alaska to go toward a behavioral health crisis services fund. The surcharge is expected to generate $6 to $8 million toward the fund, which would be administered by the Alaska Department of Health and go to support the 988 crisis line, support services, training for at-risk communities and public awareness campaigns around suicide prevention.
Alaska has the highest rates of suicide of any state in the nation — more than double the national rate — a trend that has remained consistent for decades. In 2024, the most recent year of publicly available data, 222 Alaskans died by suicide, with boys and men making up the large majority of suicide deaths at 83% of those deaths. However, more women and girls are hospitalized each year due to suicide attempts.
Alaska youth ages 15 to 24 continue to have the highest rates of any age group, with roughly 48 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024.
“Suicide prevention is important to me because I believe all of us are here for a reason,” Nicolai said. “We’re here to live and show our loved ones what we are capable of. We are here because we matter. Sometimes people forget how much they matter. So it’s our job, all of us, to check in with our co-workers, family and friends, and ask how they are feeling.”
He was among the youth, advocates and lawmakers that held a news conference on the steps of the Capitol on Thursday to urge passage of legislation in the Alaska House and Senate in part to provide state funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – a 24/7 free, confidential hotline for not only suicidal ideation, but for anyone in need of resources or support for depression, relationships or mental health issues.
“I’ve lost relatives and friends and seen the after effects of suicide in my community,” said Johnny Nicolai, his younger brother, an 18-year-old junior at Nelson Island School in Toksook Bay. “That’s why it is important for me and my friends to see people happy and supported. I want people to know that they’re not alone.”
Nicole Bick, an Alaska advocate with the national non-profit Inseparable, which focuses on improving mental health, said one life is lost to suicide every two days in Alaska. “One life lost to suicide is one too many,” she said. “Each loss sends shock waves through families, communities and classrooms.”
Jennifer Johnson-Sahaba, site administrator for Nelson Island School in Toksook Bay, spoke about the shock and grief of losing her seventh grade student to suicide last year.
“Thirteen years old, a life with so many unwritten chapters, so many possibilities, so many moments that will never come to pass. His laughter, his future, the person he might have become, all gone far too soon. His loss is something that I carry with me every single day,” she said.
Johnson-Sahaba said she feels a renewed sense of responsibility to listen and care for her students, to ensure that no one feels so alone.
“I never want another child to feel that kind of loneliness, despair and darkness that leads them to believe that their life does not matter. I never want another student to feel so unseen, so unheard and so overwhelmed that they believe there’s no way forward. Our children deserve more than that. They deserve to feel safe. They deserve to feel loved,” she said.
Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, is sponsoring the legislation in the House and spoke about losing her father to suicide.
“Although my family was aware that he was struggling, he never asked for help. He was ashamed to talk about his struggles, and maybe it was guilt or shame from culture or stigma, but he never talked about it,” she said. She said she didn’t talk about it much either, until many years later.
Mina said the state should be doing more to provide support, but stable funding for the crisis line is a start.
“When we don’t treat mental health conditions, they worsen in our emergency rooms. They also impact our families… There are far too many Alaskans that are experiencing this isolation and that are dealing with these struggles. We need a better and more stable support network,” she said.
In 2022, the Biden administration established the national 988 crisis line following legislation passed by the U.S. Congress. In Alaska, the crisis line is based in Fairbanks, and has seen a growing number of calls in the years since. Last year, the state crisis line received nearly 44,000 calls from Alaskans.
Alaska Native residents experience the highest rates of suicide in the state. Rural communities have seen much higher suicide rates per capita, according to state data, with the highest rates in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. The lowest suicide rates in 2024 were seen in the Kenai Peninsula region.
The Nicolai brothers said they have been volunteering with suicide prevention efforts with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention Alaska chapter in their community for the last several years, which holds events focused on Alaska Native community and culture to raise awareness and promote healing for those who’ve experienced suicide loss.
“Open healing is a week long event in our community where we remember those we’ve lost to suicides,” said Johnny Nicolai. “We start off with our traditional blessing song, then we listen to elders talk about life lessons and stories. After that, we separate classes into groups and they do cultural activities. Hope and healing brings people together and reminds us that our culture and community can help us.”
• Corinne Smith started reporting in Alaska in 2020, serving as a radio reporter for several local stations across the state including in Petersburg, Haines, Homer and Dillingham. She spent two summers covering the Bristol Bay fishing season. Originally from Oakland, California, she got her start as a reporter, then morning show producer, at KPFA Radio in Berkeley. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
