Samaritans demands action as number of women committing suicide reaches 10-year high
Samaritans want further research into the reasons for the increase in female suicides – and rightly so – but it should be noted that suicides always increase under a Conservative government.
The fact that female suicides are increasing is a new, worrying trend.
This Writer could suggest that it has something to do with the fact that the Conservative austerity agenda focused relentlessly on women, who were said to have been hit twice as hard as men.
But perhaps that is premature?
If anybody else – particularly Tories or their supporters – has a better answer, let’s see it.
Figures released … by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that more women took their own lives in 2015 than at any time in the previous decade, and that deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland are at an all-time high.*
The figure for the UK as a whole was slightly up on 2014, rising from 6,122 to 6,188. There was a slight decrease in the number of men dying by suicide, but men are still three times more likely to take their own lives than women. More men under 30 took their own lives than in the previous year. Middle-aged men are still at greatest risk.
Samaritans CEO Ruth Sutherland said: “We are alarmed by the increase in the number of women taking their own lives and will look carefully at why this might be. What is interesting is that, as with men, it’s middle-aged women who are most at risk and the more we can support this most at risk age-group the better.
“The record number of suicides in Northern Ireland and increase in suicides in Wales needs to be treated with caution. Fluctuations from one year to another in different nations can be due to problems with accuracy in registering and recording a death by suicide, which can mask actual trends. Samaritans believes that it’s critical to have more timely, high quality data to ensure that resources at both a local and national level are better targeted to those most at risk.
“Suicide is everybody’s business, which is why we are currently campaigning to ensure that every area has an effective Local Suicide Prevention Plan. Suicide is not inevitable, it’s preventable and politicians, employers, health bodies and educators all have a role in identifying and supporting those most at risk.”
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All part of the Tory plan just as it was in the 80’s apt quote for this time of year Scrooge-reduce the surplus population.
The tories austerity was focussed relentlessly on the disabled, sick, incapacitated, and unemployed, are you saying we are all women?
No.
But 74 per cent of the cuts have hit women: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/apr/21/welfare-cuts-women-hardest-equality
Male suicide is far higher yet you dont campaign for them!?!
Think again: http://voxpoliticalonline.com/tag/suicide/
I don’t trust the Samaritans, when I rang them the man who answered, told me “don’t be stupid, you are a long time dead”
I will never reach out to them or anyone again!
That tends to prove that it only takes one idiot to ruin the reputation of a national organisation.
I have a funny feeling that the death rate in general rises under the Torys and falls under Labour. But I have been unable to find a year by year list of the UK death rate to do the graph.
If as many women killed themselves as men, we’d never hear the end of it
It is too simplistic to blame the shocking rise in male suicide on men being unable to open up about their problems,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/mens-health/11377311/If-as-many-women-killed-themselves-as-men-wed-never-hear-the-end-of-it.html
What a good thing nobody here is saying that, then!
3 out of 4 suicides are males in Canada, the US, Britain and Australia and you are only worried about women committing suicide?
Today, on World Suicide Prevention Day, the focus is male suicide. Suicide is currently the single biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the UK, and men are nearly four times more likely than women to take their own life.
No, I’m not only worried about women committing suicide and nothing in the article indicates that.
Get a grip, please.
I will when you have an article that goes into detail about the epidemic of males suicides and rebukes western governments for doing nothing about it. Till then, you get a grip!
Have a rummage through the list of Vox Political articles tagged ‘suicide’ – link should be elsewhere on this column. I’ve done plenty about suicide of all kinds, and the reasons for it.
My grip on this issue is extremely firm. You come across as hysterical.
Take a few deep breaths, try actually taking my advice rather than snapping back a snarky comment, and accept that you are wrongly denigrating This Blog and its author.
I shall not publish another comment of yours along the same lines as this.
Have a nice day Mike :-)
I did.