| Risk Factors |
How do we know what the risk is?
Like many other behaviours, suicide is a choice made by an individual in response to a set of thoughts and beliefs. Having depression doesn't necessarily mean you will try to kill yourself, even if you have suicidal thoughts sometimes.
When depression is diagnosed, suicidal thinking is always taken into consideration, but suicidal thoughts alone are not enough to be a risk factor for most people. You could be more vulnerable to acting on your thoughts though if you believe there is no hope things will change, or if you are a more impulsive person, even if the depression is less serious. Making an assessment of the risk to a person means taking lots of things into account.
The things professionals look at when working out what the risk is are called risk factors.
Risk factors are:
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Previous suicide attempt/s |
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Deliberate self-harm |
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Mental health problems, particularly depression |
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Family history of suicide or suicidal behavior |
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Significant personal grief or loss, including losing a job or your health |
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Relationship breakdown |
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Leaving education early, or not going into further training or study |
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Poverty |
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Unemployment |
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Conflicts with the criminal justice system |
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Child abuse |
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Access to guns or other means to act |
The risk level increases the more risk factors the person has.
There are trigger factors involved as well, that are risks in themselves, but can motivate someone into action.
Trigger factors are:
Leaving care
People who have finished, or are about to finish, a period of care, whether that is residential mental health care or support in the community, are more at risk of suicide. People, particularly young men, in the criminal justice system are also very vulnerable.
Alcohol and drugs
Many studies have strongly linked suicide with alcohol and drug use. drinking is a major risk factor for suicidal behavior, particularly when the person is reporting other risk factors. Alcohol is known to play a part in ‘acting out' many behaviours, including domestic violence and other crimes. some suicides appear as drug related deaths.
Self-harm and attempted suicide
There is a strong association between attempted suicide, deliberate self-harm and then completed suicide. People who deliberately self-harm should always be taken seriously. Self-harming behaviour is likely to be a signal that a person has a mental health problem.
Previous suicide attempts
When people move into action, attempted suicide is a very strong sign that they will try again, about one in five will do in the next year. The number of tries a person has increases the risk that they will be successful next time. If a person ends up in a&e after a suicide attempt, there is a one in ten chance they will eventually die by suicide. The risk is highest for them over the next year.
Suicides in clusters
Suicides have sometimes occurred in clusters in the same area, or after suicide has been seen on the tv or in the media. It is as if having a close, or very visible suicide death gives other people ‘permission' to try it themselves. This knowledge has affected the way suicide can be presented in the media, with producers and journalists advised to avoid mention of how the person did it. There have also been some high profile 'group' suicides involving people who would probably not have chosen to die if they had not been manipulated by very powerful individuals or 'cult' organisations.
Rural living, poverty and isolation
Living in a rural area may seem idyllic, but unemployment is a problem in many rural areas. Although they aren't in what the government might call a deprived area, many rural households are struggling to survive. Farmers have been found to be at risk, particularly as in some remote areas they may not have the chance to socialize very much, and have greater access to firearms than other groups.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
Studies have found that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people report increased rates of suicidal behaviours and thinking. As yet, studies have not found that this rate results in more LGBT deaths by suicide, however clearly it is difficult to work out after death how influential a person's sexual orientation was on their decision to commit suicide.
The information on this page was sourced from:
Information factsheet on Suicide from http://www.mind.org.uk/
LIFE - Living Is For Everyone (2000). A framework for prevention of suicide and self-harm in Australia. Learnings about suicide. Publications Production Unit (Public Affairs, Parliamentary and Access Branch). Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.
Platt. S., Crombie. I., Feng. Z., & Exeter. D. (2007) The Epidemiology of Suicide in Scotland 1989-2004: An examination of temporal trends and risk factors at national and local levels. Scottish Executive Social Research
