The 8 eastern counties of Oregon are home to 180,000 people. It's some of the most sparsely populated land in the entire country. And those empty high desert plateaus hold a dark secret about severe mental illness -- and its sometimes tragic results.

OPB continues to look at the state's mental health system in this next installment of  'On Our Minds.'

Out of every 100,000 people in Oregon, 16 commit suicide each year.  That rate is not only higher in eastern Oregon - it is among the highest in the entire country. Ethan Lindsey reports now on the individual stories behind those numbers.

The city of Joseph, in the far northeast corner of the state, boasts 1000 residents.

Nick and Angie Lunde are two of them.

Nick Lunde: “We have no stop light. We have freeway access, but the onramp from La Grande to Joseph is 70 miles long. We sit nestled in a high mountain valley, it's probably the most beautiful place in Oregon.”

Nick is a retired forester.  Angie  is a social worker. They raised three children in Joseph, a daughter and two sons. Bryn was their youngest - he was shy and creative.

Angie Lunde: “He was an amazing writer, words just flowed from his hand. And he loved the mountains he was always happiest in the mountains.”

Nick and Angie Lunde

More so than her neighbors, Angie says she's dealt with the local mental health care system partly because of her job - and also because of Bryn. Her husband Nick says they first became aware of a problem at the end of Bryn's first year in college.

Nick Lunde: “He started dropping classes and he was on academic probation. We knew there was something up. He said he was struggling, but he didn't want to talk to us about it. We figured out, that he was most likely undiagnosed bipolar.”

Bryn had started college in Portland in 2003. But after the tough year, he decided not to go back to school and instead got a job working out of state. During that time, Nick and Angie went to visit.

Nick & Angie Lunde: “He had been depressed. And I asked him if he had ever thought about hurting yourself and he said yes. And I said, what's kept you from it, and he said procrastination I guess. And that's when we first knew he was suicidal.”

Fearing for Bryn, the Lundes pushed him to come home, around November of that year.

And he did. He started seeing a family friend who's a therapist. Normally, therapists won't work with people they know.

But he made an exception,  since services in eastern Oregon are scarce due to a lack of funding and a shortage of mental health professionals.

Those difficulties are the cause psychiatrists point to, when talking about the suicide rate in rural Oregon.

Robin Henderson: “Look at the way our state funds mental health coverage.

Robin Henderson is the director of behavioral health at Bend's Cascade Health Services.

Robin Henderson: “A lot of that is based on population numbers. But the person who lives in La Grande should have those same basic access to services just like the person who lives in Washington County.”

For instance, from Joseph, it's a seven-hour drive to the closest in-state acute care center, in Bend.

And in Joseph, there are no psychiatrists at all -- the closest is an hour's drive.

And, says Henderson, the problem isn't just resources. There's a stigma.

Robin Henderson: “Sometimes it's the tradition, 'oh you just need to buck. You just need to buck up and get over it.' There's a lot of that out here.”

Bryn Lunde in high school portrait

Back in Joseph during the winter of 2004, Bryn Lunde was struggling with his condition, even talking openly at times about suicide.

Even then, his parents could do little more than provide emotional support. Oregon law prevents involuntary commitment to a mental institution unless the person is an immediate threat.

It was Christmas, and family was in town. Bryn gave his brother a hand-painted guitar as a gift. And a few days after the holiday, the Lunde parents, along with their daughter Erin, decided to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and go for a hike.

Angie & Nick Lunde: “And we came down Hurricane Creek, and we saw a car parked there, hey that's our car. So we stopped and he'd left a note. And it said, I love you guys, but not as much as I hate myself. And there'd been a little skiff of snow the night before and I started following his tracks. Erin turned around and she was the one who saw him hanging in the tree first. And the two of us hung to each other and just wailed.”

The Lundes say they don't blame the stigma or the lack of rural resources for Bryn's suicide.

In many ways, they say the rural area is their foundation and their strength.

Nick Lunde: “After Bryn's death, the outpouring of love and support from this community was just stunning. I'm never experienced anything like it.”

And they say, the community was just as important to Bryn, during his life and because of where he chose to die.

Angie Lunde: “It was way up the mountain and it was a beautiful view. And it was his favorite place in the whole world. His mountains. He was always happiest in the mountains and he died looking at his favorite place. That's how I remember him, his connectedness with nature and people. What a good kind gentle soul.”

Online:

Fishtrap - The Bryn Lunde Scholarship for Young Writers

AFS-USA - Bryn Lunde Scholarship

We're getting help reporting the "On Our Minds" series from our Public Insight Network.  The people in the Network are helping us cover the news by sharing their knowledge & experience. If you'd like to contribute your knowledge, go to our web site - opb.org/publicinsight.