World Suicide Awareness Day
Content warning: suicide, abuse
Before we talk about suicide, let’s talk about what to do if you’re in crisis yourself. If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts or other crisis, you can call the Calgary Distress Centre at 403-266-HELP (4357) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If the situation is an emergency, you can always call 911 for emergency medical services. And if you need to be connected to a social, community, or government services, you can call 211. We have listed other resources at the end of this article.
September 10 is World Suicide Awareness Day – today, our goal is to talk about suicide to help to improve understanding about suicide, as well as some of the factors that can increase risk, and some of the ways people can get help when they’re struggling.
Facts about suicide in Canada
In Canada, 11 people per day die by suicide. This adds up to approximately 4,000 people per year. It is the second leading cause of death among both youth and young adults (age 15-34 years), but it can impact people of all ages. In fact, one-third of deaths by suicide in Canada are among people aged 45-59 years. Men are three times more likely than women to die by suicide.
Factors that can increase risk for suicide
Mental health issues can impact anyone – people of any age, any gender, any race or ethnicity – but there are certain factors that can increase the likelihood that people might struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide. Many of these factors are related to stability in our lives and meeting our basic needs. For example, in Canada, people in the lowest income group are more than twice as likely than those in the highest income group to have made a suicide plan in their lifetime.
At CUPS, we aim to help build an understanding of toxic stress, and the ways that toxic stress can affect people over time. Toxic stress occurs when a person’s stress response system is activated for a long time, due to chronic and intense stressors, and a lack of adequate supports. This severe, ongoing adversity, in the absence of positive supports, can cause prolonged stress that has negative effects on the brain and body. One of these negative effects can be an increase in the likelihood that a person will struggle with thoughts of suicide, or the likelihood that a person will attempt suicide.
Some of the specific experiences that can increase toxic stress and suicide risk are homelessness or housing insecurity, or food insecurity. A 2017 study in Toronto examined all suicide deaths over a period of 15 years – the researchers found that people who were experiencing homelessness and those who were at imminent risk of homelessness were more likely than others to have died by suicide.
Another study, published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology in 2015, looked at how food insecurity – when people don’t have reliable, consistent access to nutritious food – connects with suicide risk in Canada. These researchers also found an increase in suicide risk, meaning people who don’t have secure access to food are more likely than others to struggle with thoughts of suicide.
What does CUPS do to help?
Because we know that toxic stress can increase people’s risk of suicide, we know how we can help – if we can reduce people’s toxic stress, we can reduce their risk for mental health difficulties and risk for suicide.
At CUPS, we try to reduce toxic stress by providing integrated care programs that are customized to each client who walk through our doors. This care program can involve economic supports to help people experiencing (or at risk of) housing and food insecurity; a health clinic that addresses physical and mental health, as well as specific programs for women’s health and for people struggling with addictions; developmental supports for children and families; and social-emotional supports to help people connect to their communities. Our goal is to help each person we serve to build resiliency and reduce toxic stress.
You can learn more about suicide prevention in Canada at https://suicideprevention.ca/WSPD - and other resources that can provide help can be found below:
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868
o Text CONNECT to 686868
o Chat Services [4 pm–12 am MST]: www.kidshelpphone.ca
• Trans Lifeline: 1-877-330-6366
• Hope for Wellness Help Line: 1-855-242-3310
o Online chat: www.hopeforwellness.ca
• Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
• Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 [24/7]
Interested in getting involved at CUPS? Click here.