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This story revealed that rural East Texas communities see elevated suicide rates when compared to the rest of the state—even when compared to other rural areas. It found that local and state authorities aren’t bothering to study or fix the problem; the elected county officials who conduct preliminary investigations of self-inflicted deaths rarely have any medical training and ask few questions about the deaths; the state healthcare agency has shirked its responsibilities to prevent suicides and fund suicide prevention; and Texas’ threadbare inpatient mental healthcare system forces patients into hospital emergency rooms or short-term crisis centers where they are released before any real healing can occur.