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Heightened Suicide Risk among the Unemployed Population

09 Sep 2008

 

Message from World Suicide Prevention Day: "Think Globally. Plan Nationally. Act Locally."

(9th September 2008, Hong Kong) The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), has announced the World Suicide Prevention Day to be held every year on September 10. The day is designated as an agenda for global and regional collaborative programme that focus on the worldwide suicide problem. Numerous national and local events such as conferences, meetings, concerts, and events with spiritual or cultural content have been announced and organised all over the world in order to increase the public awareness of "Think Globally. Plan Nationally. Act Locally."

In response to IASP and WHO's initiative, HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (CSRP) of the Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, announces their recent research findings.

Despite the facts that our local economy is improving, unemployment rate is declining, and suicide rate is decreasing, we find that the unemployed are facing much heightened suicide risk than ever. This heightened risk is more pronounced among the unemployed females. According to the CSRP statistics, the relative risk, which is a ratio of the probability of the event occurring in a group versus another group, of completing suicide among the unemployed females has risen from 6.0 in 2002 to 21.0 in 2006, which is a 3.5-fold .

"Data suggest that our local unemployed individuals are not benefiting from the recovery of Hong Kong economy. Even worse, their risks for suicide are markedly increased. " said Prof. Paul Siu-Fai Yip, Director of the CSRP and Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong.

"The global economic prospects are uncertain. If the recent drop of the Hong Kong economy continues, our suicide rate may climb up again. Prevention is always better than cure. We must proactively do whatever we can to prevent that from happening. Improving the mental health in our communities is essential. To make suicide prevention really effective, our society and the government should have the right thinking, planning, and acting to do it." said Prof. Yip.

In addition, based on a joint study conducted by the Family Planning Association and the CSRP, we analyzed the data collected from 2,270 secondary students in Hong Kong and found that 24.5% of the studied students had thought of killing themselves in the past year. It is a slight increase compared with the 20.9% figure found in a similar study 5 years before. Albeit this figure falls into the international range (12% to 26%)1, it is at the high end of the range.

"We should interpret this figure cautiously. Though this figure is alarming, our local youth suicide rate remains at a relatively low level, compared with other cities or countries. Nevertheless, programs that aim at improving the mental health of students, say school-based mental health curriculum, are needed to enhance the student's resilience, and eventually, help preventing the premature deaths of our promising young individuals," said Prof. Yip.

Public health suicide prevention strategies, like mental health education, empowering family function, community network support, gatekeeper training, restriction of access to lethal means, helping people bereaved by suicide, and evidence-based research etc, are suggested and endorsed by the World Health Organization and the International Association of Suicide Prevention to address the worldwide suicide problems.

"We are also grateful to announce that the 3rd Asia Pacific Regional Conference of International Association for Suicide Prevention will be held on 31 Oct to 3 Nov 2008 in Hong Kong. This Conference is organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of the University of Hong Kong, and is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization. The theme of this Conference is Suicide Research and Prevention in Times of Rapid Change in the Asia Pacific Region: Opportunities and Challenges. We hope that this conference will provide a platform for researchers, policy makers, stakeholders, and front line workers from all over the world to exchange their wisdoms in preventing suicide in this region collaboratively. " said Prof. Yip.

Delegates from about twenty countries and regions will present more than 150 research and clinical findings on the suicide problem in the Asia Pacific Region in the conference. Please visit our website http://csrp.hku.hk/iasp2008 for details.

If you need further information, please feel free to contact Mr. Fu on 2241-5016 of HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention.

1 Nock MK, Borges G, Bromet EJ, et al. Suicide and Suicidal Behavior. Epidemiol Rev 2008.