DENVER - As representatives from North Dakota and nine other states gather in suburban Denver this week to discuss suicide prevention efforts, most Western states continue facing suicide rates much higher than the national average.

Western mountain states have traditionally seen higher rates of suicide than other areas of the country, but a comprehensive study offering an explanation of that trend does not exist.

"There's a lot of well-informed speculation, but there haven't been definitive studies that really explain it," said David Litts, associate director of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

That "well-informed speculation" includes issues surrounding social isolation, a cultural taboo against seeking help and an inaccessibility of mental health services.

Earlier this month, a Lamar mother tried to commit suicide after allegedly drowning her two children. Rebekah Amaya, 32, said a spider crawling across her hand was a sign to kill her 4-year-old daughter and 5-month-old son.

Amaya apparently did not get medical help for her depression until she collapsed at the Prowers County Jail the day her two children were buried.

Residents of rural areas and the West also have a greater access to guns when a decision has been made to commit suicide.

"If you attempt a suicide with a very lethal means, it's more apt to be a suicide than it is to be an attempted suicide," Litts said.

Also, the often physical isolation of Westerners can be a disadvantage when less-lethal means of suicide are attempted. The amount of time it takes emergency medical attention to reach people in isolated areas hurts their chances of surviving a suicide attempt.

Suicide statistics are based on the number of suicides per 100,000 people in the state's population, and Western states have traditionally had the highest rates.

While the national average for 2001 was 10.8, the average for Western mountain states was 16.2, the highest of any region by nearly four suicides.

Every state in the mountain West ranked in the top 13 in suicides in 2001, and the region held six of the top seven spots, with Alaska ranking sixth.

New Mexico had the highest suicide rate with 19.8 per 100,000 people, followed by Montana, Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado. New York had the lowest suicide rate in the country with 6.6.

North Dakota ranked 20th in the nation, with 12.4 suicides per 100,000 people.

The regional conference being held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Westminster will consist of representatives from 10 states to discuss suicide prevention practices and implementing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.

The national strategy was published in 2001, outlining eleven goals and 68 objectives for preventing suicide and offering a blueprint on how to implement services that help do so.

Those goals ranged from promoting better mental health care, to offering better training for doctors and nurses and changing the way suicide is depicted in both entertainment and news.

The conference is designed to bring states the most up-to-date information on suicide prevention strategies and offer officials the chance to hear prevention efforts that are working in other areas so they can better implement the national strategy.

"Our interest at this point is to be able to bring as much of the science base to people working on the state level and the local level," said Jane Wilson, acting regional health administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Public Health and Science.

With the national strategy being intentionally broad, the conference will allow states to discuss strategies that have worked and brainstorm new ways to deal with unique problems.

"There really are local differences in the way states treat depression and the way that suicide prevention programs are put together and just the way that different communities handle it and so forth," Wilson said.

Attending the conference will be representatives of states within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Division 7 and Division 8. Included are Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.