Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Sean D. Hamill
April 9, 2015
“A lot of times in life, a person just needs someone to listen to them,”
The suicide of a Plum veteran last week in the parking lot at the Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs’ H.J. Heinz facility in O’Hara was tragic because she was a young woman who seemed to have much to look forward to.
Former Army Staff Sgt. Michelle R. Langhorst, 31, served nine years in the Army, mostly as a member of the military police, before an honorable discharge in 2012. She had graduated from Point Park University last year and recently got a job as a security supervisor at UPMC Shadyside.
“She was moving forward. She had everything going for her,” said Natalie Guiler, who taught Ms. Langhorst last year in a tutorial class at Point Park. “I am devastated about Michelle’s death.”
But Ms. Langhorst’s death stood out for two main reasons: she was female and she had been receiving behavioral health treatment at the VA for at least a couple of years.
Both categories put her in a distinct minority among the painfully large number of veterans — about 22 a day, nationally, according to one study that estimated the figure based on data from 21 states — who kill themselves.
“What we try to do is give people hope,” said Veronica Lucious, who has been a suicide prevention case worker for the Pittsburgh VA since 2009.
She spends most of her day on the phone, checking in with veterans who have been flagged either by their doctor, family or friends, as being at-risk.
“A lot of times in life, a person just needs someone to listen to them,” she said.
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