Flatt, a suicide prevention trainer with Nevada's Office of Suicide Prevention, was referring to federal statistics released Thursday showing a spike in the suicide rate of people ages 10 to 24 from 2003 to 2004.

According to state figures, the suicide rate among Nevadans ages 15 to 24 during that period dropped from 17.5 per 100,000 in 2003 to 11 per 100,000 in 2004.

The 2004 national suicide rate among this age group is 10.4.

"Overall, our rate is considerably higher and something we'd like to see go down," Flatt said.

In 2003, 61 people ages 15 to 24 in Nevada committed suicide. The next year, 41 people in that age group killed themselves.

Though the numbers show a decrease, Flatt said, "one is one too many."

"You can't just take a snapshot of just one or two years," she said. "You have to take a broad look at the issue and continue to work on prevention."

In recent years, local and state health officials have taken a look at the Nevada suicide rate, which is 18.9 per 100,000 for all ages, according to 2004 federal and state figures. Based on that rate, Nevada ties Montana for second in the nation. Alaska had the most, at 23.6 suicides per 100,000 population.

Suicide is the sixth-leading cause of death in Nevada. About 60 percent of the 432 suicides in Nevada in 2004 occurred in Clark County, according to data from the state's Center for Health Data and Research.

In 2003, the Legislature created the Office of Suicide Prevention, which remained dormant for the next two years because of lack of funding. It was resurrected in 2005 with a $355,000 appropriation.

From that office, the state's first Suicide Prevention Plan was created.

Released this year, the plan, a 65-page document, available at http://dhhs.nv.gov/SuicidePrevention.htm, is modeled after the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

It calls for creating ways to:

• Promote awareness that suicide is a public health problem that can be prevented.

• Develop broad-based support for suicide prevention.

• Develop and implement strategies to reduce the stigma associated with being a consumer of mental health, substance abuse and suicide prevention services.

• Improve access to mental health and substance abuse services.

• Promote efforts to reduce access to means and methods for people to harm themselves.

• Improve reporting and portrayals of suicidal behavior, mental illness and substance abuse in the media.

In recent years, the Clark County School District has created a suicide protocol through its Department of Student Threat Evaluation and Crisis Response aimed at preventing students from becoming suicidal.

The protocol was put to use this week when a student called and said, "I can't stand it anymore. I just don't want to live,'' said Rosemary Virtuoso, coordinator of the department. Although the call didn't turn out to be about suicide, Virtuoso said the goal is to intervene with students who are dealing with stress or having suicidal thoughts.

"We have 100 percent success rates," she said. "Whenever there is intervention of a caring person, we can make it happen. It is the ones who we don't know about who scare us. We tell our staff to keep their antennas up."

Virtuoso said teachers, counselors and school psychiatrists look for signs, including "deep dark thoughts" in students' writings. The student may be referred for evaluation.

Flatt said parents, family members and friends should take notice of changes, especially if they see a loved one giving away prized possessions such as a guitar or baseball cards. She said that may signal the individual is making end-of-life arrangements.

"If a kid is depressed for a while, then all of a sudden gets better, that may be a sign,'' Flatt said. "It could mean they are relieved they made the decision about that option.''

Keeping quiet about signs that someone might be suicidal is wrong, Virtuoso said.

"Sometimes taking a delicate issue and ignoring it is the absolute worst thing to do,'' she said. "We have to do the opposite of hiding the issue.''