An average of four people per hour attempted suicide in Taiwan last year, the Taiwanese Society of Suicidology (TSOS) and the National Suicide Prevention Center said yesterday ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday.
Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed that there were 35,324 reports of attempted suicide last year based on people being taken to hospitals after such attempts, or an average of four people per hour, TSOS director Lee Ming-been (李明濱) said.
The death rate from suicides in Taiwan has declined annually since 2006, with suicide dropping out of the nation’s top 10 leading causes of death in 2010, he said.
In 2006, 4,406 people killed themselves, while last year only 3,864 people did so, about the same as the year before, he added.
However, the number of young people, defined as between the ages of 15 and 24, who killed themselves rose by 47, or 22.4 percent, last year, Lee said.
Liao Shih-cheng (廖士程), a member of the TSOS’ executive council, said the suicide mortality rate for young people has increased from 6.4 per 100,000 people in 2017 to 9.1 per 100,000 people last year, similar to what is happening in several other countries.
The most common form of suicide in this age group is falling from a height, and emotional and mental health problems, as well as problems at school, were among the main reasons for the suicide attempts, Liao said.
Lee said the TSOS’ annual survey on mental health and suicide awareness and behavior of people aged 15 and above found this year that 5.9 percent of respondents — an estimated 1.21 million people — suffer from emotional distress, down from 8.3 percent in 2018.
About 12.1 percent of respondents — or an estimated 2.47 million people — claimed to have had suicidal thoughts at least once in their lifetime, and 2.2 percent — or about 443,000 people — have seriously thought about suicide in the past year, the survey found.
This year’s survey also asked respondents whether the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them, and 45.5 percent of respondents said it had caused them stress in the past month, Lee said.
While people aged between 25 and 44, who were “unemployed” and “divorced or lost their spouse,” usually had the highest stress levels in previous surveys, “business operators” and people who are “divorced or lost their spouse” reported the highest levels of stress this year, he said.
“Working together to prevent suicide” has been the slogan for World Suicide Prevention Day for the past three years, the TSOS said.
The day is organized by the International Association for Suicide Prevention and cosponsored by the WHO.
More people should try to become suicide prevention gatekeepers — by asking and caring for people who appear to need help — and referring them to specialists for counseling or treatment, Lee said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s all hours free suicide prevention hotline number is 1925, while the Teacher Chang Foundation’s (張老師基金會) hotline is 1980.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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