LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the numbers are shocking. While efforts are underway to get the epidemic under control, there’s one group that mental health experts say is proving hard to reach.

“At Imperial Calcasieu, we have a lot of partners in our community,” says executive director Tanya McGee. “We work very closely with the office of public health. We work very closely with our school systems, just in looking at the data.”

But what they’re seeing, they don’t really like.

“We always say we need to get people access to treatment, we need to get people access to treatment, but what we’re finding is that we need to get to them. Folks just aren’t coming and busting our doors down and saying I need help.”

“One of our biggest work groups that we just got started, and you’re joining in on, is looking at behavioral health and suicide prevention. Because when we look at our numbers, our numbers are not going down, and so we want to make sure that we’re putting our efforts, and our dollars, and our programs where they can work the best.”

McGee is the executive director of the Imperial Calcasieu Human Services Authority, or IMCAL. It’s the largest behavioral health agency in the area. She says the most at-risk group right now is white men in their 30s and up.

So, what’s the disconnect there?