Rural suicide prevention in response to COVID-19: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

Against an historical backdrop wherein age-adjusted suicide rates in the United States are the highest they have been in 80 years (Drapeau & McIntosh, 2020) came a global pandemic. The scope of the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has led suicidologists to question whether the current crisis creates “a perfect storm” of conditions under which suicide mortality rates may increase. This query is of particular importance for rural communities, given data to suggest that suicide deaths are disproportionately higher among rural versus urban populations (Kegler, Stone, & Holland, 2017). Below we discuss factors that have been observed to contribute disproportionately to rates of rural suicide mortality—all of which are likely to be amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.