Every suicide is a tragedy and can have devastating effects on families, friends, colleagues and society. Suicide should be seen as, and addressed as, a health and gender inequality. It represents an avoidable difference in health and length of life that results from being poor and disadvantaged. Suicide affects men more, probably as a result of the way that society expects them to behave. Suicide prevention should be extended beyond its focus on individual mental health problems, to understand the social and cultural context that contributes to people feeling that they wish to die.1
In the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between the ages of 20 and 49 years. This overshadows road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease. Suicide is predominantly a male disorder.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS)2 has reported that there were 4727 suicide deaths in 2013, which shows an increase of 214 when compared with the 4513 deaths reported in 2012.
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