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Australia; International; VIC
Media release
From:
Join this online news briefing to hear from two of the report authors.
- Professor Jane Pirkis, Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne
- Dr Rakhi Dandona, Professor of Public Health at the Public Health Foundation of India, Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington, and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Date: Mon 09 Sep 2024
Start Time: 09:00am AEST
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online - Zoom
LANCET MEDIA RELEASE:
Peer-reviewed / Opinion and literature review / People
The Lancet Public Health: Experts call for public health approach to suicide prevention, with social factors addressed in addition to clinical treatment services
A new six paper Series published in The Lancet Public Health argue that a change in the narrative is needed to move from presenting suicide as a purely mental health issue to also acknowledging the impact of social factors, such as poverty, debt, addictions, homelessness, abuse, discrimination and social isolation, on a person’s decision to consider suicide.
According to WHO, over 700,000 lives were lost to suicide in 2019, equating to 1,925 per day, or one every 45 seconds. The Series highlights how clinical treatment services are critical for people in a suicidal crisis, but upstream measures that address social factors must also be included in national suicide prevention strategies in order to prevent people reaching crisis point. Tackling the social factors which contribute to suicide requires a policy re-set with a whole of government commitment to hold politicians and policy makers from all sectors accountable for decisions that may help or hinder suicide prevention efforts – a “suicide prevention in all policies” approach.
Examples of potential interventions to address social factors suggested by the Series include:
- Economic policies to reduce poverty such as minimum wage legislation and income protection policies.
- Regulation of commercial products such as policies that limit alcohol consumption and increased regulation of social media platforms.
- Policies, legislation and cultural change that can help reduce domestic violence and abuse.
Prof Keith Hawton, University of Oxford, UK, says: “Many suicides are preventable and public health strategies generally have the biggest impacts on reducing population suicide rates. This Series highlights key areas where public health policies are needed and examples of their effective implementation. We hope this will inspire those responsible for suicide prevention across the world to ensure that such approaches are applied in their countries and localities.”
Prof Jane Pirkis, University of Melbourne, Australia, says: “Suicide is often thought of as stemming from mental illness, but factors like financial hardship, social isolation, discrimination, and domestic violence and abuse wield a major influence. This Series demonstrates that addressing these more upstream factors is likely to lead to sizeable reductions in suicide rates. We are calling on governments from around the world to take a “suicide prevention in all policies” approach that would see consideration given to how actions in a range of sectors might influence suicide and its prevention.”
