World Suicide Prevention Day
10 September 2009
World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September promotes worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides. On average, almost 3000 people commit suicide daily. For every person who completes a suicide, 20 or more may attempt to end their lives.
With the sponsoring International Association for Suicide Prevention, WHO and other partners advocate for the prevention of suicidal behaviour, provision of adequate treatment and follow-up care for people who attempted suicide, as well as responsible reporting of suicides in the media.
At the global level, awareness needs to be raised that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death. Governments need to develop policy frameworks for national suicide prevention strategies.
At the local level, policy statements and research outcomes need to be translated into prevention programmes and activities in communities.
World Suicide Prevention Day 2008
Around one million people die each year by suicide
The focus of World Suicide Prevention Day this year is on suicide prevention by all, at all levels - personal, public and political. The 2008 theme, "Think Globally, Plan Nationally, Act Locally" encourages people worldwide to unite in commitment and action to promote understanding about suicide and ensure that they are prevented. The impact of suicide can be devastating for all concerned. On a personal level, friends and families require social support, on a national level governments need to recognize the causes of suicide and protect the most vulnerable groups in their communities. On a global scale, research and health organizations can identify global trends and encourage the sharing of information in effective prevention activities.
About one million people commit suicide each year. Every 40 seconds, the loss of a person who killed themselves shatters the lives of family and friends. For every person who completes a suicide, 20 or more may attempt suicide. For family and friends affected by suicide or attempted suicide, the emotional impact can last for many years.
World Suicide Prevention Day not only offers an opportunity to ensure that suicides are prevented, but also that people living with mental illness, in particular depression and alcohol use disorders, receive adequate treatment, that community-based care and close follow-up are available to people who attempt suicide, that access to common methods of suicides is restricted, and that media reports of suicides are more measured.
There is a growing awareness of suicide as a major public health problem, even though there is a taboo in many societies against discussing it openly. Worldwide, suicide rates have increased by 60% over the last 50 years, and the increase has been particularly marked in developing countries. Most suicides in the world occur in Asia, which is estimated to account for up to 60% of all suicides. China, India and Japan - because of their large populations - may account for up to 40% of all world suicides.
The World Health Organization (WHO) works with governments and other partners such as the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) to ensure that suicide is no longer stigmatized, criminalized or penalized. Suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death which is influenced by psycho-social, cultural and environmental risk factors which can be prevented through local, national and international responses which address these main risk factors. There is compelling evidence indicating that adequate prevention can reduce suicide rates.
WHO recently published a resource for media professionals to serve as a reference in preventing suicide. In addition, research into the complex causes and factors resulting in a higher incidence of suicide are communicated globally by WHO to help inform national governments. A recent example is the implementation of suicide-prevention projects in China and South-East Asia in early 2008. These projects focus around prevention of self-poisoning with pesticides, which accounts for 60% of suicides in many rural areas of China and South-East Asia.
WHO's role is to build political commitment and leadership to develop national responses to prevent suicide, strengthen national planning capacity to establish the core building blocks of such a national response, and build the national capacities to implement these responses.
If governments commit to defining national responses to prevent suicide, huge progress can be made. And by building networks and alliances like the projects in China and South-East Asia which support governments in planning and implementing their national responses, we will find that suicide is a largely preventable public health problem.
International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)
The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) is dedicated to:
* preventing suicidal behaviour,
* alleviating its effects, and
* providing a forum for academians, mental health professionals, crisis workers, volunteers and suicide survivors.
Founded by the late Professor Erwin Ringel and Dr. Norman Farberow in 1960, IASP now includes professionals and volunteers from more than fifty different countries. IASP is a Non-Governmental Organization in official relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) concerned with suicide prevention.
Suicide prevention (SUPRE)
The problem
* Every year, almost one million people die from suicide; a "global" mortality rate of 16 per 100,000, or one death every 40 seconds.
* In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years in some countries, and the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group; these figures do not include suicide attempts which are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide.
* Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in 1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former socialist economies in 2020.
* Although traditionally suicide rates have been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries.
* Mental disorders (particularly depression and alcohol use disorders) are a major risk factor for suicide in Europe and North America; however, in Asian countries impulsiveness plays an important role. Suicide is complex with psychological, social, biological, cultural and environmental factors involved.
Effective interventions
* Strategies involving restriction of access to common methods of suicide, such as firearms or toxic substances like pesticides, have proved to be effective in reducing suicide rates; however, there is a need to adopt multi-sectoral approaches involving many levels of intervention and activities.
* There is compelling evidence indicating that adequate prevention and treatment of depression and alcohol and substance abuse can reduce suicide rates, as well as follow-up contact with those who have attempted suicide.
Challenges and obstacles
* Worldwide, the prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to basically a lack of awareness of suicide as a major problem and the taboo in many societies to discuss openly about it. In fact, only a few countries have included prevention of suicide among their priorities.
* Reliability of suicide certification and reporting is an issue in great need of improvement.
* It is clear that suicide prevention requires intervention also from outside the health sector and calls for an innovative, comprehensive multi-sectoral approach, including both health and non-health sectors, e.g. education, labour, police, justice, religion, law, politics, the media.
Fuentes:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_suicide_prevention_day/en/index.html
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/wspd_2008_statement.pdf
http://www.iasp.info/
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/index.html