BUTLER TWP — Sometimes just listening can save a life.

That was the message at a suicide prevention training seminar Friday at VA Butler Healthcare as part of the Suicide Awareness Week in Butler County.

Peter Albert, the suicide prevention coordinator at the VA, talked about suicide prevention.

“Anyone can learn to help someone,” Albert said.

There are about 37,000 suicides in the United States each year. That is more than twice the number of homicides, he said.

Women are three-times more likely than men to attempt suicide, Albert said, while men are four-times more likely to complete it.

“That has to do with firearms,” Albert said, noting men typically have more access to them.

“In this county, 60 percent of suicides are with firearms,” he said, adding older white men in rural areas are the highest risk of suicide.

Albert said the best way to prevent suicide is by simply asking a person if he is contemplating killing himself.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that asking someone if he is thinking about suicide will lead that person to follow through with it.

“That’s a myth,” Albert said. “Talking can open a door or a window that releases some of the tension. It allows people to share thoughts they don’t really want to share with their loved ones. It gives a person permission to talk about what is going on in their head.”

There are key signs that someone may be contemplating suicide, including expression of hopelessness, anxiety, agitation and sleeplessness. But Albert said it is important to note that just because someone displays risk factors does not mean the person is suicidal.

Albert said people who have attempted suicide in the past are at a higher risk to attempt it again.

“Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior,” he said.

But even if someone never has attempted it, signs and clues still can be picked up in their behavior.

“Most people who have committed suicide communicated to some extent beforehand,” he said.

Alcohol is a major influence on suicide attempts.

“The majority (of people) are drunk or high at the time,” Albert said.

Albert said there are typically two to five attempts per month at the VA facilities in six counties.

But, he said, some years there are no successful suicides and some years there could be one or two suicides.

Marsha Wagner with the Center for Community Resources said prevention is key to helping people battling thoughts of suicide.

“Our goal is to bring awareness to the signs and symptoms of suicide,” said Wagner, who is a co-founder of the Suicide Awareness Task Force in the county. “We want to show the public what to look for.”

It is the second annual Suicide Awareness Week, but the first to offer a training course in prevention.

“We want to show someone out there contemplating suicide that there is someone out there to help them,” she said. “They’re not alone.”