The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released data showing that suicide rates rose two percent from the previous year, adding to an ongoing trend over the last two years.

Approximately 48,183 people died by suicide in 2021, followed by 49,449 deaths in 2022. On the heels of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, experts say the reason for the increase shouldn’t be pinned to one specific reason but rather many different factors that must be addressed.

Factors could include additional agencies accurately reporting data, the increase of substance abuse deaths over the last few years and problems relating to inequality and the economy.

Initiatives like the National Violent Death Reporting System have helped to collect data on the issue after it was expanded to all 50 states in 2018. It helps to monitor and track violent death trends.

“There’s a lot of good reasons that would lead us to think that suicides would increase,” said Dr. Julie Cerel, director of the University of Kentucky’s Suicide Prevention and Exposure Lab, which focuses on research related to prevention, research and the understanding of suicide and its effects.

After the release of the 2022 suicide numbers, the government launched the 988 hotline number for all cellphone and landlines users, connecting 988 calls to over 200 local and state-funded crisis centers. Callers can be routed to crisis hotlines and speak to counselors.

The hotline itself is just one component in addressing mental health crises. Cerel said that the issue is compounded by a lack of resources. She called the new hotline a “good, small step in the right direction,” while adding that the initiative has been strained by a lack of funding.

As a result, there’s a lack of professionals answering the phones as well as few good referral resources. The service needs mental health professionals at all levels ready help people who are experiencing suicidal ideation, Cerel said.

“Unfortunately, most mental health training barely touches on that,” she said.

Outside of the hotline, there appears to be a lack of available mental health care across the country.

According to a 2021 report from the American Psychological Association, nearly seven in 10 psychologists with a waitlist found those lists growing even longer since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s really hard for people to see a clinician who can deal directly with their thoughts of suicide,” Cerel said.

“So the standard of care for people is to hospitalize them. That hospitalization, oftentimes is very brief, and their risk for death by suicide is actually greater after they’ve been in the hospital.”

What Cerel is describing is known as 72-hour psychiatric hold, where a hospital admits a person that has been deemed a threat to themselves or others — or, in some cases, unable to provide for themselves — and puts them in care for about three days.

That hospitalization can still have a significant impact. Individuals who have been previously hospitalized for psychiatric issues have suicide rates about 30 times higher than the general population, a 2017 study found.

Hospitalization don’t necessarily provide solutions to suicidal ideation, including resources for coping, Cereal noted. Instead, they serve as a “quick respite” from ongoing mental health challenges. In most cases, patients will just be given a prescription for new medication.

Such care can even feel like “incarceration,” she added.

Given the mental health landscape, Cerel said that the new statistics do not represent crisis levels, stating that the increase is not particularly novel.

To bring the numbers down, Cereal believes that the U.S. would have to enact stricter gun control legislation and implement wider services that are either inexpensive or would be covered by insurance — two unlikely changes given polarized political dynamics.

Over 50 percent of suicides involved a firearm, current CDC data shows.

While it’s impossible to predict future trends, experts are currently concerned about the ongoing rise in inflation numbers and how that’s likely to impact suicide prevention work, Sarah Brummett, director of the executive committee for the National Alliance for Suicide Prevention said. About 16 percent of suicides stem from a financial problem, according to The Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

An August U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed that inflation rose from 3 percent to 3.2 percent within the last year.

Brummett said that the fallout of inflation, including the rise in home prices, are contributing to “some of those stressors that individuals and families are up against.”

She said the public should react to the new data by renewing a call to action and invest in building communities worth living in, which would involve implementing support systems for those facing mental health crises.

“It’s really essential that we don’t turn a blind eye to these losses and these tremendous tragedies,” she said.