Suicide Barriers

"More people in the general population die from suicide than homicide in North America. There are almost 11 suicide deaths each year for every 100,000 people living in the United States, and for every suicide, there are between 8 and 25 attempts" (Brent 4203). Based on this research, the great effect of suicide is displayed. According to dictionary.com, suicide can be defined as "the intentional taking of one's own life." Suicide is a major issue for all people, but it most obviously affects those ranging from ten to twenty-four. People need to understand the tremendous ramifications caused from suicide everyday; when people take their lives, others lose their loved ones. Suicide, one of the leading causes of death of numerous people each day, has reached a crisis point for adolescents and young adults, and it needs to be prevented.

Suicide is a controversial topic in today’s society, as some individuals believe it causes no effect on other individuals. This statement, however, is false because not only will it affect your family but it effects your colleagues, friends, and even old classmates. One of the hardest things that a community can face is the loss of a young person’s life, as it effects everyone in the community. This death can lead to multiple community members feeling guilty, not only for not having prevented the suicide, but also due to distress, anger, and confusion. More specifically, in regards to family members, it can lead to mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, divorce, and are at higher risk to commit suicide themselves (Tracy, 2016, para. 3,4,5,6,7,8,9). The distress not only will have short term effects but it will

“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” - Phil Donahue. As a complex, tragic public health issue, suicide occurs in men significantly more often than in women. Suicide is simply defined as the act of intentionally ending one’s own life, however, the factors that play into a person making that decision are anything but simple. The most evident and severe effect of suicide is the loss of a valuable, meaningful human life. According to Harvard School of Public Health (n.d.), suicide affects parents, children, siblings, friends, lovers, and spouses; the loss to society is psychological, spiritual, and financial. People who lose a loved one to suicide often experience devastating effects and deal with a complex grief. These

The Healthy People 2020 initiative is a government-sponsored program designed to use science-based, 10-year national objectives to improve the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 encourages collaboration across communities, empowers individuals to make informed health decisions, and measures the impact on health of these activities ("2020," 2013). The goals of 2020 related to mental illness are to improve mental health by assuring access to quality mental health services, to reduce the suicide rate, to increase the number of homeless persons who need and also receive mental health services, to reduce the number

Healthy People 2020 set a goal of reducing the number of completed suicides among the adult population by ten percent. This is a reoccurring theme from Healthy People 2010, where the goal was to reduce the number of suicides from 10.5 to 4.8 per 100,000. Unfortunately, from 2003 to 2013, rate of death from suicide has steadily increased to the current rate of 13.0 per 100,000 deaths (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The goal of Healthy People 2020 is to improve the health of our Nation over the next ten years, from a baseline set of data (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). Though suicide is not an illness, it typically is an untreated or undermanaged mental illness that results in a person resorting to

Healthy People 2020 is a government site that identifies health concerns based on statistics observed and collected over a ten-year period. Mental Health and Mental Disorders is one of the many health concerns or topics listed on their website and has been further subcategorized into objectives and goals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2015). The first objective listed under this topic states “reduce the suicide rate” (HHS, 2015). The goal of this objective is to “reduce the suicide rate by ten percent” (HHS, 2015). Suicide is prevalent among varying age groups, ethnicities, and genders (HHS, 2012). It is an increasing problem prompting Healthy People 2020 to label it as a Leading Health Indicator or an extremely important issue (HHS, 2015). To meet their goal, Healthy People 2020 partnered with the U. S. Surgeon General and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP) to create a plan that can be utilized throughout the nation. Their plan focuses on removing the stigma associated with mental health and mental health disorders while simultaneously building supportive communities with increased access to care, creating a standardized model promoting the collaboration of health care professionals in order to increase identification and data collection of high-risk patients and provide continuity of care, and ensuring the education and the adequacy of patient support systems.

Healthy People 2020 has chosen twelve health indicators and has set a goal to improve them. Public health has a significant role in ensuring that these topics are addressed and that the goal is achieved. The leading health topic and indicator that I chose is within the Mental Health Status Improvement, and the indicator is reducing the suicide rate. In 2010, when the 10-year initiative started, the baseline measurement for suicides was 12.1; however, in 2015, it had increased to 13.3. The HP2020 target goal is 10.2 (Healthy People, 2017). The increase denotes that there was no progress made and that the measure worsens instead of improving.

Suicide has historically been and continues to be a significant issue in the United States, for civilians as well as active duty military service members and veterans. While statistics surrounding suicide appear to be just numbers on a page, I personally implore the reader of the following paper to never lose sight of the fact that those numbers represent real people. Each one of those people, be they civilian or military, represent a loss of a father or a mother, a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, a best friend, a comrade, …a person whose life, and that life’s potential, is now forever lost. The following statistics on suicide rates in the United States do not differentiate if the individual was a civilian, an active duty

On any given day approximately fifty percent of individual’s, or 3.5 million people, with severe psychiatric disorders go untreated. In 2013, many of those became part of the more than forty-one thousand suicides in our country. These individuals may also have been the patients who were told on a daily basis, to wait thirty days to six months to see a psychiatrist. The numbers of diagnosed mental illnesses have rapidly increased in the past thirty years but yet the numbers of mental health providers have not been able to keep up with that drastic increase. While it is unclear if there is correlation with the increased recognition of mental illnesses and the number of diagnosed illnesses, it is clear to the Center for Disease Control and

Imagine someone’s best friend dies. Later this person discovers that their friend commit suicide. Envision this person’s feelings and all of the painful thoughts and memories going through their mind. This person probably feels intense sadness and maybe even betrayal. Do not forget the suicide victim’s parents. Their own child felt worthless enough to kill themselves. The students at the victim’s school have confusion, start rumors, and gossip. All of the victim’s friends feel as if the suicide happened because of them. Everyone feels as if they could have done something to prevent this tragic event. Suicide is a social issue rising in severity. Each year, over a million people commit suicide throughout the world. Suicide has the name of a

APHA has identified that SDH in America is influenced by substance abuse, poverty, racism, discrimination, lack of employment, poor housing and poor health choices. These issues have led to the increase of mental health issues and has contributed to the increasing number of suicides reported In America. APHA has dealt with these issues by providing education to all and forming policies like “APHA Policy Statement 9701: For Non-discriminatory Coverage of All Mental Health Treatment” (APHA, 2015). Policies like this also promote social

The American Psychiatric Association states, “Over 68 million Americans have experienced a psychiatric or substance use disorder in the past year. That is more than 20% of the total U.S. population.” Lifetime rates are estimated to be more than 50 percent. Sadly, just four years ago 41,000 Americans died by suicide. There are too many people with suffering from these disorders that are unable to access the proper services to support

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States and approximately forty thousand Americans commit suicide annually (CDC, 2013). Globally, there are 14.5 suicides per 100,000 people (Hawton & van Heeringen, 2009). Suicide is the act of purposefully causing one’s own demise and is complex; it could be due to a wide variety of risk factors and social determinants. Many people that have committed suicide have a mental disorder that could have been treated, thus suicide could have been prevented. Suicidal ideation, which is thoughts of hurting or killing oneself, can also lead to suicide if help is not sought (Bridge, Goldstein & Brent, 2006). As many resources as there are available to prevent suicide, people are

Thesis: Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among American citizens, landing in at number 10 in the United States, and only climbing. This problem is an uncomfortable epidemic that needs to be talked about in a more open and realistic fashion. Perhaps suicide rates would fall if more people knew the warning signs and felt safe talking about suicide and mental health everywhere instead only feeling comfortable talking about it in a “safe space”. With this current ideology of suicide, the main focus of prevention is targeted on teens, but when looking at the statistics this clearly needs rerouting to include the middle-aged and elderly people of America. Knowing what to say when a suicidal person comes for help is great

Suicide is currently the 10th leading cause of death in the United States (Suicide and Self-Inflicted Injury, 2017). On average, 121 Americans complete suicide each day (CDC Fatal Injuries Report 2015, 2015). The American people are living longer with advances to medical care and technology, yet suicide rates continue to rise. According to the CDC, suicide rates have increased by 24% from the year 1999 to 2014 (Curtain, Warner & Hedegaard, 2016). Consequently, the suicide epidemic continues to grow with no clear path to prevention. This literature review was conducted using the Robert Morris University Library online databases. Databases accessed include PubMed…………., from the years 2000 to 2017. Overall, most the articles obtained are