Suicide: Males

(asked on 11th September 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of family separation on male suicide rates.


Answered by
Alistair Burt Portrait
Alistair Burt
This question was answered on 16th September 2015

No such assessment has been made, however we know that there are links between mental ill health and social factors like isolation and family breakdown and that men in certain age-groups are more likely to present with suicidal behaviour. Suicide continues to be more than three times as common in males than in females, 13.8 per 100,000 for males in 2011-13, compared to 4.0 for females.

Preventing suicide in England: A cross-government outcomes strategy to save lives, published in 2012, identified a number of high risk groups who are priorities for prevention young and middle-aged men. The strategy recognises that factors associated with suicide in men include family and relationship problems including marital breakup and social isolation. The strategy recognises that those who work with men in different settings, especially primary care, need to be particularly alert to the signs of suicidal behaviour.

A review by the Samaritans, Men Suicide and Society, published in 2012, also highlighted that middle-aged men in certain socioeconomic groups are at particularly high risk of suicide. It pointed to evidence that suicidal behaviour results from the interaction of complex factors, including a lack of close social and family relationships, personal crises such as divorce, as well as a general ‘dip’ in subjective wellbeing among people in their mid-years, compared to both younger and older people. The report also found that relationship breakdown is more likely to lead men, rather than women, to suicide and was published in February 2015.

The Government’s first annual report on the suicide prevention strategy was published on 17 January 2014. It highlighted a new agreement designed to promote greater sharing of information with friends and family of people at risk of suicide. The second annual report into suicide prevention was written for people working in local services.

In January 2015, this Government called for every part of the National Health Service to commit to a 'zero suicide' ambition to dramatically reduce suicides. This goes beyond health service boundaries into the whole community, bringing in the police, education, housing, debt support services and so on.

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