World Suicide Prevention Day

The male suicide prevention charity, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) issued the following announcement on World Suicide Prevention Day.

The Chief Executive of CALM, Jane Powell said:

“Male suicide accounts, on average, for around 75% of all suicides in the UK each year. We know that men and women equally suffer mental health problems and equally consider taking their own life, fairly seriously or very seriously. But while women make many suicide attempts, men are likely to successfully take their own life. We suggest, therefore, that any suicide prevention strategy MUST address gender if it is to be successful. Looking at, middle age men, or young people in isolation is bound to fail if men’s very deep seated difficulty in seeking help is not addressed.”

In 2012, the last date for which we have figures for, 77% of all suicides were male. It is the single biggest killer of men aged 20-49 in the UK.