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Men and Suicide report by The Samaritans
Created: 20/11/2024
News/Events Category: Health and Social Care
In 2010, Samaritans developed a targeted campaign across the UK and the Republic of Ireland to encourage men to seek help and raise awareness of the risk of suicide in this group.
Samaritans had identified that men from disadvantaged backgrounds, in their 30s, 40s, and 50s were at highest risk of dying by suicide. These men are often not engaged in services.
There are still many unanswered questions about the high risk of suicide amongst this demographic. In particular, it's not understood why they take their own lives. Samaritans have attempted to answer this question with their report Men and Suicide: Why it's a social issue. It looks beyond the statistics and into the real lives of men.
The report identifies six factors that indicate why men take their own lives:
- Personality Traits - For example, psychiatric illness and mind-sets such as perfectionism and self-criticism
- Masculinity - For example, comparing themselves to a 'gold standard' of masculinity, feelings of shame, and misusing alcohol and substances to deal with these feelings
- Relationship Breakdown - For example, men tend to rely on their partner more for emotional support and they may have the desire to punish their ex-partner
- Challenges of Mid-life - Beyond the age of 30, men have fewer supportive peer relationships than women, and are dependent on a female partner for emotional support
- Emotional Illiteracy - For example, being reluctant to talk about feelings
- Socio-economic Factors - Unemployed people are 2-3 times more likely to die by suicide than those in work
They have also set out recommendations for policy-makers and practitioners which include:
- Take on the challenge of tackling the gender and socio-economic inequalities in suicide risk
- Suicide prevention policy and practice must take account of men’s beliefs, concerns and context – in particular their views of what it is to ‘be a man’
- Recognise that for men in mid-life, loneliness is a very significant cause of their high risk of suicide, and enable men to strengthen their social relationships
- There must be explicit links between alcohol reduction and suicide prevention strategies; both must address the relationships between alcohol consumption, masculinity, deprivation and suicide
- Support GPs to recognise signs of distress in men, and make sure those from deprived backgrounds have access to a range of support, not just medication alone
- Provide leadership and accountability at local level, so there is action to prevent suicide
Click here to read the full report.
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