Five people killed themselves in the first three months of 2009 in Elkhart County owing at least in part to economic concerns, according to County Coroner John White.

To be sure, it's a grim, sad statistic. Most people are able to weather tough economic times, though it might require help from friends, family and others.

But there it is, and if you go back to last fall, when the economy really started faltering, the five suicides increases to six. There have been eight suicides here in the first quarter of 2009, up from two in the same period last year and five each in 2007 and 2006.

"It concerns me a lot," White said. "I feel like somehow we need to get word out that there is help. (The faltering economy) is a temporary problem."

White gleaned the information about the six people from notes they left behind and friends or family. Relationship issues and mental health problems, notably depression, have been the usual reasons people here kill themselves, not economic woes.

Of the five economic-related suicide victims this year, two had been laid off from their jobs in the recreational vehicle sector, which has been pummeled by the weak economy. Two others were working for the RV sector, though White isn't sure if they were employed or not, while the fifth had been operating a business that was apparently suffering.

The person who committed suicide in part for economic reasons last fall had lost a large amount of money due to the declining stock market.

That more people would commit suicide in times of great economic uncertainty isn't unprecedented. The highest recorded suicide rate in the United States occurred during the Great Depression, according to John McIntosh, a suicide expert, professor of psychology and vice chancellor at Indiana University South Bend.

However, a variety of factors usually figure in suicides, individual economic circumstances being just one possibility, he said.

Likewise, Cathy Blum, a clinical social worker in Elkhart, said several factors figure in the ability of someone to contend emotionally with job loss and economic calamity. Among others are age, length of tenure in the lost job, other income sources and the presence of a social support network, like friends and family.

Someone young, with no one else to feed, may be more resilient, perhaps, than an older person who's the sole provider for a spouse and children.

Also figuring in the mix are the presence of other "social stressors," said John White, a Goshen psychologist. Difficulties in dealing with economic problems may be magnified if someone is also contending with, say, divorce, a serious illness or the death of a loved one.