Suicide and self-harm prevention in older adults

Every year organisations and communities around the world come together to raise awareness of how we can create a world where fewer people die by suicide. In 2017, in the UK and Ireland alone, over 6,000 people died from suicide. Suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for people of all ages. It is responsible for over 800,000 deaths annually.

 

Suicide rates in older women have increased in the past five years, converging toward those of younger women of working age; and the suicide rate amongst men aged 60 years an older is higher than rates for male adolescents and younger male adults.

 

To mark World Suicide Prevention Day, we’ve a produced this podcast featuring, Dr Elizabeth England, RCGP Clinical Champion for Mental health and Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham, Chair of the RCGP Scientific Foundation Board and RCGP Curriculum Advisor on Mental Health. They discuss a recent paper by Prof Chew-Graham and colleagues published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which looks at the latest evidence and key characteristics around self-harm in older people.