September 10 - World Suicide Prevention Day:

Stigma: A barrier to suicide prevention

by S. Weragoda

“Poor people in developing countries survive and often find pleasure in their hard lives. There are few suicides in the poorest countries. Who has time for suicide? You’re too busy surviving.”
David C. Colander, Professor of Economics at Middlebury College

The feeling of disappointment is a part of human nature, it is said. It is weakness of facing up to it or overcoming it that becomes the underlying factor of a person’s character.

While the world will be observing the World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10 to promote worldwide action to prevent suicides, many believe it is still a moot point to identify the best method to overcome the increasing global suicides and raise awareness that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death.

This year’s World Suicide Prevention Day theme is Stigma: A Barrier to Suicide Prevention.

World Suicide Prevention Day, which first started in 2003, is held annually on September 10. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) takes a leading role to co-sponsors this event, World Suicide Prevention Day aims to raise awareness that suicide is preventable, spread information about suicide awareness, decrease stigmatisation regarding suicide and improve education about suicide.

Males

It is estimated that about one million people around the world commit suicide every year. There are people all over the world who feel so low that suicide seems like the only way out. But there is always another way - and we can tackle it together!

It has been recorded that males aged 40-59 are most at risk for suicide.

In 2009, 1,361 men in this age group died by suicide in Canada.

However, incidence of suicide tends to be under-reported due to both religious and social pressures, and possibly completely unreported in some areas.

Suicide rates have shown a steady increase over the past 50 years and are projected to increase to 1.53 million by the year 2020. This is in spite of significant advancements in recognition and treatment of depression and other mental disorders, the introduction of more effective and safer psychotropics (including anti-depressants) and improvement in mental health services in many countries. However, in countries such as Finland and England suicide prevention programs have successfully lowered suicide rates.

Incidence of suicide is usually reported as rates per 100, 000. It is reported that countries with rates of more than 30/100 000 are considered high rates countries; those with rates between 10–29/100 000 as middle rates countries and those with rates less than 10/100 000 (e.g. Egypt, Jordan) as low rates countries. Rates, however, do not always reflect the true extent of the problem.

On average, nearly 3,000 people commit suicide daily, according to WHO. For every person who completes a suicide, 20 or more may attempt to end their lives. About one million people commit suicide each year. Suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death which is influenced by psycho-social, cultural and environmental risk factors that can be prevented through worldwide responses that address these main risk factors.

Evidence

There is strong evidence indicating that adequate prevention can reduce suicide rates.

Mortality Database 85 percent of suicides in the world occur in low and middle income countries, though data are unavailable for 73 percent of these countries, says a WHO report. Overall there are no data on suicide for more than half of the world’s countries, most of which are developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America.

Suicide is no longer a criminal offence in any developed country but continues to be so in many developing countries, especially in many Islamic countries. Religious and social factors also continue to influence the diagnosis and registering of suicides. Families do not disclose the true nature of the act, for fear of harassment by police and/or social stigma.

A number of effective prevention programs and guidelines has been put in place in various places throughout the world.

One cannot comprehend the statistics behind the high rate of suicide in high income countries. Numerous studies have shown that Denmark and Sweden that consistently score high on measures of happiness and life satisfaction also have relatively high suicide rates. Some social scientists speculate that the trends are probably unrelated and can be explained by regional factors like dark winters or cultural differences regarding suicide.

Reaching out in their hour of need can stem suicides to an extent

More Americans commit suicide compared to car accidents, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a disturbing statistic that some experts say points to the true depths of the US economic crisis.

From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among US citizens between 35 to 64 soared by about 30 percent, to 17.6 deaths per 100,000 people, a jump from 13.7. Economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the University of Warwick in England and Hamilton College in New York examined life satisfaction scores provided by 2.3 million Americans state by state, compared to state suicide rates. Utah, for example, ranks highest in life satisfaction - but also has the ninth highest suicide rate in the U.S.

The largest economies in Asia also have the highest suicide rates in the region with South Korea, China and Japan leading. South Korea, identified as one of the G-20 major economies is a high-income developed country and a member of OECD of which it is the most highly industrialised. South Korea has the highest suicide rate among the 30 OECD countries, with the toll of suicide deaths doubling in the last decade with a suicide rate of 31.7 per 100,000.

On September 10 2013, the International Association for Suicide Prevention will appeal to the public to mark the Day by lighting a candle at 8.00pm and placing it in a window to show support for World Suicide Prevention Day and suicide prevention across the world.