LANE COUNTY, Ore. — A Springfield mother is speaking out after her 31-year-old son died by suicide, saying gaps in the health care system left him without the help he needed.
Malissa Glass said her son, Ethan Ewers, died by suicide March 30, 2023. She said she first noticed a shift in him when he was a teenager.
“Ethan was probably about 14-years-old and came to me talking about struggles in school, and I kind of noticed that he was withdrawing a little bit more,” Glass said.
Lane County Public Health (LCPH) says loved ones should pay attention to changes like withdrawal, noting the county sees an average of 80 suicides a year.
Glass said her son had been diagnosed bipolar, depressed and schizophrenic, and was taking medication. But she said he struggled to find care to refill prescriptions while battling voices in his head.
“I could tell he was struggling a little bit. He was worried ’cause he couldn’t find a primary care provider that could refill his prescriptions because you can’t get a refill without a primary care or a psychiatrist care. Within six days, we found his body at his apartment,” Glass said.
Glass said she believes a continuum of care in Lane County could have kept her son from dying by suicide, and she blamed the county for inaccessible appointments.
“There’s no continuum of care. It’s like you get the medications and then you’re discharged to go figure it out. And that was his biggest struggle is he didn’t know how to figure it out,” she said.
LCPH says it is working to improve access to care through a partnership with PeaceHealth. The hospital is set to build an emergency mental health facility in Springfield called Timber Springs Behavioral Health Hospital by 2029, with the Lane County Stabilization Center adjacent to that hospital.
“That is the sort of keystone in our overall prevention strategy, and we have lots of partners in the community who want to be a part of that solution too, but we don’t have that place where you can self-present. And that’s where the Stabilization Center will be. And that’s critical that we sort of put that last piece in the overall continuum,” LCPH Communications Director Jason Davis said.
Public health officials also urged families and friends to watch for warning signs. Davis said, “Isolation, hopelessness. Those are two of the most common sort of underlying feelings that folks have before suicidal ideation begins.”
Davis said rural communities are hit hardest, and that factors including bullying, the impact of social media and economic struggles contribute to county suicide rates. Davis also encouraged open conversations about suicide.
KVAL – Springfield mother says broken health care system failed son before suicide
“There’s this idea that if we talk about it that people will be more likely to complete it, and it’s exactly the opposite. The more we talk about it, the more we normalize the conversation about suicide, the more apt an individual is to be forthright when talking about their own struggles,” Davis said.
Lane County Public Health says the county is working to grow its provider base and tapping trauma intervention partners within the community to better understand the problem and provide resources.