Statistics
Overview: Suicide 20th C
Myths & Facts
The Person with Suicidal Thoughts
SALT Strategy
Youth Suicide
Elderly Suicide
Male Suicide
Aboriginal Suicide
Gay & Lesbian Suicide
Rural Suicide
The Media
About Suicide
Elderly Suicide
Statistics
- In 2001, suicide accounted for 145 deaths in the 75+year age group (at a death rate of 13.0 per 100,000 persons).
- Research from the World Health Organisation shows "a clear tendency for suicide rates to increase with age."
- Suicide rates among the elderly can be considerably higher than those of young people (this is even as the suicide rate in young people is increasing at a greater rate than it is in the elderly).
Risk Factors
- Suicide usually represents the culmination of a series of very complex stressful life events with multifactorial origin. Understanding these factors will help us to handle this complex phenomenon and guide the management of people exhibiting suicidal behaviour:
- Many elderly people live alone at home, which is where the majority of elderly suicides take place.
- Chronic pain, terminal illness, dementia, isolation or the death of a partner or close friend can result in depression in any individual, at any age. Such stressors can be overwhelming and of course are much more common in old age; sometimes several stressors can happen within a short time.
- Retirement - loss of worth or contribution to society
Male Suicide
Facts:
- Suicide is the leading external cause of death among men.
- In 2001, the age groups 25-34 and 35-44 accounted for 47% of total suicide deaths. The majority of these deaths were male.
- In Australia over the period 1991 - 2001, male suicides outnumbered female suicides by a ratio of 4:1. This ratio is largely consistent over all age groups. It does not apply to the rate of attempted suicides and estimates of suicide ideation in Australia point to the sex ratio being the other way around.
- For every completed suicide there are many more attempts.
- Homosexuality issues may be involved in up to on third of young men under 24 who suicide, which testifies to continual social prejudice and homophobia.
Aboriginal Suicide
Statistics
- Approximately 86% of all Indigenous suicides are by males.9 (Only four States have indigenous death data considered to be of publishable standard.)
- Aboriginal suicide rates are possibly two to three times that of non-Aboriginal Australians.15
Gay and Lesbian Suicide
Issues
- Social Isolation & social prejudice
- Social rejection
- Self-identity issues
Rural Suicide
Statistics
- Suicide is more common amongst males in rural and remote areas.14
- The rate of suicide increases in communities with populations of less than 4,000.
Issues
- Geographical Isolation
- Changes in industry & economy
- Strong stereotypes of "people in the bush" being tough (especially males)
- Lack of resources & services in rural Australia
Appendicies
Aboriginal Suicide
- "Deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People," in ch.3 in Deaths, ABS publication 3302.0 2001; pp. 20-24.
- As Colin Tatz noted in 1999, "if the Australian figures are even reasonably accurate, Aboriginal rates (of suicide) are possibly two to three times the non-Aboriginal." (Colin Tatz, Aboriginal Suicide is Different: Aboriginal Youth Suicide in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand: Towards a Model of Explanation an Alleviation. A Report to the Criminology Research Council in CRC Project, 25/96-7 (July 1999). Precise suicide statistics of indigenous people remain elusive for a range of reasons (e.g. Aboriginality may not be registered; a further reason why cited figures are likely to be conservative). In his extensive research of Aboriginal suicide, Tatz cautions against preoccupation with the "figures and the decimal points," which often deflect attention from what is an undeniable and disproportionate reality - "What must be appre4ciated is that there is an undeniably high and abnormal rate of young Aboriginal suicide, particularly among males and their tendancy to suicide is more prevalent." (Tatz, Aboriginal Suicide is Different, p.59)
- Tatz, Aboriginal Suicide is Different, p10
- Jones (1972) & Horne (1973); Eastwell (1988) Tatz (1999).
- Tatz, Aboriginal Suicide is Different, p64.
Gay and Lesbian Suicide
- J. Nicholas & J.Howard," Better Dead than Gay: Depression, Suicide Ideation and attempt among a sample of Gay and Straight-Identified Males aged 18 to 24," Youth Studies Australia (17, 4, 1999), pp 28-33. In the American context see Hartstein (1996) and Moscick (1997).
- Jay Paul et al at San Francisco's Centre for AIDS Prevention Studies (University of California) examined a 1996-1998 survey of 2,881 gay and bisexual men. Those surveyed lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago, though most were originally from areas that included smaller cities and towns. See Randy Dotinga, Gay men much more likely to attempt suicide," Gay.com/PlanetOUt.com Network;
- http://chanels.gay.com/news/article.html12002/08/05/1.
- A report concluded for the Young Lesbian Support Group that researched suicidal behaviour in two hundred Australian lesbians indicated that across all ages, 31% of the group had attempted suicide because of issues related to their sexuality. (Barbeler, 1991, cited in C.H. Cantor, K.Neulinger, J Roth et. al. The Epidemology of Suicide and Attempted Suicide Among Young Australians: A Report to the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, Brisbane, 1998)
- National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy: Setting the Evidence-Based Research Agenda for Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2000) p.87
- Nicholas, Better Dead than Gay. Also see J. Millard, Suicide Attempts in the Lesbian and Gay Community," ANZ Journal of Mental Health Nursing (1995) pp 181-189. top
