re: 4750 excess suicide deaths during the Great Recession

Yes, believe this. Some people were barely hanging on by a thread prior to all of this. Not many people have excess money squirreled away for a life changing stressor (such as losing a job) in an emergency. If they aren't having money coming in or can't draw unemployment very quickly, and are holed up in their house, expect it to go up.
Combine it with the fact that younger people don't have the coping skills anymore that the older generations have and this makes for a bad situation.