Gov. Kristi Noem a surprise guest speaker at state's 2024 Suicide Prevention Conference

Gov. Kristi Noem was a surprise guest speaker Friday morning at South Dakota's 2024 Suicide Prevention Conference in Sioux Falls, where she promised attendees she'd do anything she could to further help them accomplish their goal of ending suicide in the state.

Speaking prior to the conference's keynote address, Noem praised the effectiveness of things like the state's crisis care centers, or the 988 Helpline.

988 has had more than 20,000 calls since it went live in 2022, Noem said. And while 23.8% of those calls were suicide related, she added that 97% of them were stabilized by the end of the call.

Noem said suicide was a personal issue to her, adding the loss of a friend to suicide had been a "fundamentally life-changing experience" that left her wishing someone could have told her exactly what to do, or what she could have said.

Statistics from the South Dakota Department of Health show that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the state, but the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10-19.

South Dakota had the fifth-highest suicide death rate in the U.S. in 2021, with 23.4 deaths per 100,000 population as compared to 14 per 100,000 population nationwide.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Gov. Kristi Noem a surprise guest speaker at state's 2024 Suicide Prevention Conference