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A number of protective factors have been identified with regards to high suicide risk:
- Effective clinical care for mental, physical, and substance abuse disorders
- Easy access to a variety of clinical interventions and support for help seeking
- Family and community support
- Support from ongoing medical and mental health care relationships
- Skills in problem solving, conflict resolution, and non-violent handling of disputes
- Cultural and religious beliefs that discourage suicide and support self-preservation instincts
- Measures to prevent suicidal acts can be divided as follows:
1. Strategies designed to increase the recognition of suicidal youth and their referral to existing mental health resources.
2. Strategies designed to directly address:
- underlying problems such as mental disturbances, substance abuse, physical illness, sudden life crises or cumulative life problems. An example is to provide supportive measures (psychological, instructional, social) aimed at boosting people’s capacity to cope with life crises.
- limiting the availability and access to lethal means of suicide. Examples are: setting up fences or nets and emergency telephones at particularly frequent suicide sites; developing less toxic prescription drugs and producing drugs in smaller-sized packaging; and restrictive handgun regulations.
Legislation enacted in Canada in 1991 to promote safer handling and storage of firearms through mandatory safety courses for all new gun owners showed that the overall suicide rates in youth aged 15-19 did not change, but the rates of suicide by firearms dropped from 60% to 22%.
Integrated prevention strategies that address multiple associated factors (e.g., substance abuse prevention, family and peer support, and access to health services) are likely to be more effective in reducing suicidal behaviour than programs that focus on a single risk factor.
This information has been taken from the Fact sheet on Suicide published by the Alliance in October 2006. This fact sheet including the references to the information above is available here.
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