CARMEL – Last year, nine Putnam residents committed suicide. For the first six months of 2026, four suicides have occurred countywide.
Putnam County Legislator Nancy Montgomery, chairwoman of the legislature’s Health Committee, delivered positive news to Wednesday’s meeting of the panel.
The State Office of Mental Health will distribute $660,000 to five counties across the state to strengthen suicide-prevention programs, and Putnam was the only municipality in the Hudson Valley.
Putnam joins Chautauqua, Madison, Tioga and Cayuga counties, all upstate, receiving $36,000, followed by $48,000 annually for the next two years.
Montgomery said initiatives involve safety and injury prevention efforts with gun shops and ranges; behavioral health services integrated within primary care; training clinicians; addressing social isolation for men; partnering with faith-based organizations; and suicide safety programming in schools.
Paul Tang, Putnam’s director of Mental Health, explained that the funding would allow the county to “build on the established framework of the Putnam County Suicide Prevention Task Force and associated LOSS Team.”
The most recent federal census indicated between 2021 and 2023, New York counties with fewer than 200,000 residents had suicide rates that were 90 percent higher than urban areas
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