Radio Telefs ireann (RT) is the Irish Public Service
Broadcasting Organisation, November 22, 2001
A new
national study on suicide has identified a need to improve
men's skills in dealing with emotional problems and life
crises. The study, commissioned by the country's health
boards, found that mental health disorders, especially
depression, are the highest risk factors for suicide. It said
that young men, in particular, need help to improve their
skills in dealing with emotional problems.
This latest study investigated the circumstances surrounding
over 800 suicides which occurred in 1997 and 1998. In recent
years, suicide has become the principal cause of death in men
aged between 15 and 34 years, surpassing the number of deaths
from road traffic accidents.
Data from coroners, Garda reports, doctors and families was
used to detail the circumstances, five times more men died
from suicide than women, and 40% of the deaths were men aged
30 or under.
The report said that the strong protective effect of marriage,
as found in other studies, was confirmed in this research.
Single, separated, divorced or widowed people had higher rates
of suicide.
Depression remains the highest risk factor for suicide, almost
a third of those treated as in-patients for mental illness
died within three months of discharge. The research also found
that relationship problems were the most common recent
significant event prior to death.
Public health specialist, Dr Declan Bedford, said that men
were less likely to seek help when depressed. The report
recommended specific health strategies for men, and they
needed greater encouragement in accessing health services.
BRANDON, Man. - Thirty-five years ago today, Lillian White gave birth
to her youngest son. Yesterday, she knelt down and kissed his coffin
at his graveside.
Darrin White committed suicide two weeks ago in Prince George, B.C.,
after a judge ordered him to pay his estranged wife twice his take-home
pay in child support and alimony each month.
In death he has become a poignant symbol of family courts gone awry,
of a divorce system run by people with closed minds, hard hearts and
deaf ears.
More and More teens are becoming depressed. The numbers of young people
suffering from depression in the last 10 years has risen worryingly, an
expert says.
BBC, UK, August 3, 2004
Government statistics suggest one in eight adolescents now has depression.
Unless doctors recognise the problem, Read More ..uld slip through the net,
says Professor Tim Kendall of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental
Health.
Guidelines on treating childhood depression will be published next year.
Professor Kendall says a lot Read More ..eds to be done to treat the illness.
The National Post, The Gazette, Montreal, Lynn Moore, Monday, February 15, 1999
Women in Quebec talk Read More ..out it, but when it comes to doing it -- committing suicide -- it's men who
actually do the deed. It's a gender gap that needs explaining, say suicide prevention experts who point to
statistics that show 80% of Quebec suicides are male.
"The high rate of male suicide is becoming a pressing public heath issue," Louise Levesque, head of the
Association Quebecoise de suicidologie, said yesterday during a press conference to launch Suicide
Prevention Week.
Of the 1,351 Quebecers who committed suicide in 1997, 1,071 were male and 280 were female, said Pierre
Morin, Quebec's chief coroner, citing the most recent figures available.
Especially alarming is the high suicide rate among male "baby boomers," Mr. Morin said. Almost 2,000 men,
aged 35 to 50, committed suicide during the last five years for which statistics are available, he said.
StatsCan recently reported on a 10% increase in suicides. But StatsCan persists in ignoring the
group of Canadians at greatest risk for suicide, as do the media and professional reports.
Suicide is a microcosm for those most under stress and most at risk of unresolved crisis in society. Suicides may logically be categorized
as 100% citizens of Canada, and then as 79% male. The most critical measure of depression - suicide - is counted
overwhelmingly in male corpses. For over 23 years widespread media and professional attention concentrated on 12,500
AIDS deaths, compared to little concern with 92,000 suicides.
Presentation to the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs of the House of Commons concerning Bill
C-68 - Firearms Act.
by Brian L. Mishara, Ph.D. Past President, Canadian
Association for Suicide Prevention and Professor of Psychology at the
Université du Québec a Montréal.
The New Zealand Herald, BY LEAH HAINES, October 10, 2004
A three-year project by welfare and health agencies has halved the rate of
suicide among some of the country's most at-risk children.
Researchers say the project has the potential to put a massive dent in New Zealand's youth suicide rate - currently
the highest in the developed world.
The results of the Towards Well Being suicide monitoring project were due to be presented to an international
conference on youth suicide this weekend and are expected to gain global attention.
PA News, U.S.A., By John von Radowitz, Science Correspondent, September 28, 2003
Broken marriages, living a single life and lack of income are
the three factors chiefly to blame for a surge in suicides
among young men, a new study has shown.
Suicide rates in England and Wales have doubled for men under
45 since 1950, but declined among women and older age groups
of both sexes.
Researchers trying to discover why found that between 1950 and
1998 there were worsening trends for many suicide risk
factors.
These included marital break up, birth and marriage declines,
unemployment and substance abuse.
But those most associated with young men aged 25 to 34 were
divorce, fewer marriages, and increases in income inequality.
