According to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. The rank is even higher, as the fourth leading cause of death for adults between 18-65, the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE) reported. The report also found there has been an increase in the suicide rate of working-class Americans between 16-64. Research has confirmed there has been an increase of 40% in the last 17 years.
The data was collected from 32 states that participated in the 2016 National Violent Death Reporting System to create awareness on suicide prevention. The CDC hopes this information will be used to create better prevention strategies. According to the CDC, prevention can be taken by all industries and occupational grounds and it has compiled a toolkit of strategies to prevent suicide for both the community and employers to use.
“These findings highlight opportunities for targeted prevention strategies and further investigation of work-related factors that might increase risk of suicide,” the study authors said in the report. The report said previous research found the risk of suicide is often connected with factors including low-skilled work and education, lower socioeconomic status, and job stress and insecurity. The report gathered information to estimate suicide rates for working individuals and “identified groups with rates higher than the study’s population rate.”
The data found five industry groups and six occupational groups to have higher suicide rates than others for the 20,975 people involved in the study. The industry groups included: mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; construction; agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; and transportation and warehousing. The occupational groups with higher rates included some overlaps including construction, transportation, and repair, according to the CDC’s report. Construction-related jobs showed the highest rate of suicide risk among both men and women in the study.
While the study cites working-class citizens to have higher rates of suicide and includes factors such as unemployment and job stress as frequent causes of risk, there is no concrete reason for suicide rates and attempts. Studies find that risk factors include but are not limited to environmental problems like job-related stress or familial history and health factors, like depression, substance abuse, and mental health issues.
While universal suicide rates have fallen due to improvements to living conditions, there is no concrete data that restricts these risk factors to the increasing rate of suicide. “At the individual level, there is never a single cause of suicide. There are always multiple risk factors,” Chief Medical Officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Dr. Christine Moutier told the American Psychological Association (APA). “That confluence of multiple risk factors makes it a trickier business to explain a population-level rise.” Moutier also pointed out that many are unaware of the help they can receive due to a lack of “accessible” and “affordable” health care which contributes to increasing suicide rates.
Suicide in the U.S. is increasing at alarming rates, according to the CDC report, an estimate of 38,000 people died by suicide in the country in 2017. SAVE notes that for each person who dies of suicide, 25 estimated attempts have been made by other individuals. That statistic amounts to an alarming number of 950,000 attempted suicides in the year of 2017. According to the AFSP, 129 Americans died by suicide each day in 2019.
We can all play a part in preventing suicide. It is important to check up on those you know, whether or not you consider them strong or whether or not you think something is wrong. We are all human, we all feel, and some just hide our feelings better than others. A simple text could change a person's day, a simple smile could impact a life.
If you or someone you know needs help use #BeThe1To to connect them to resources @800273talk. There is no shame in getting the help you need.