SPH Launches Series of Panels on Suicide Prevention Thursday

Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. Throughout October, the School of Public Health is hosting Stopping Suicide: A Population Health Approach to Preventing Suicide, three virtual panels, drawing mental health experts from across the country. The series begins Thursday, October 1, at 4:30 pm. Photo by Wacharaphong/iStock
SPH Launches Series of Panels on Suicide Prevention Thursday
“We must address failures at a system level,” experts say
While the global suicide rate has declined steadily since 1990, suicide mortality in the United States reflects a starkly different trend.
Between 1990 and 2016, the age-adjusted global suicide rate decreased by 33 percent, but in the United States, the suicide rate has increased by 35 percent since 1999, making suicide the nation’s 10th-leading cause of death.
Today, Thursday, October 1, the School of Public Health will hold the first of a three-part Public Health Conversation to examine this complex, multifaceted issue. Stopping Suicide: A Population Health Approach to Preventing Suicide will convene mental health experts from academia and government to discuss the causes and challenges of suicide, potential solutions, and ways to promote mental health and well-being.
Today’s first session, from 4:30 to 6 pm, will feature panel presentations by scholars on the challenges of suicide prevention and a discussion moderated by Lynn Jolicoeur, a WBUR producer and reporter. The second event, on October 8, will have keynotes by Dévora Kestel, director of the World Health Organization department of mental health and substance abuse, and Joshua Gordon, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. In the concluding session, on October 15, experts will explore ways to mitigate suicide risk and deaths.
Event Details
Stopping Suicide (Panel One)
This series of panels will address the daunting public health challenge of suicide prevention. #SPHConversations #StoppingSuicide
SPH faculty members Carol Dolan, a clinical associate professor of community health sciences, Sarah Lipson, an assistant professor of health law, policy, and management, Jaimie Gradus (SPH’04,’09), an associate professor of epidemiology, and Julia Raifman, an assistant professor of health law, policy, and management, played an integral role in planning the event.
These faculty designed the program in early January, well before COVID-19 surged in the United States. But the need for suicide prevention is even more urgent today as the mental health impact of the pandemic continues to unfold. A first-of-its-kind School of Public Health study recently found that COVID-19 has likely tripled the prevalence of depression symptoms in this country.
“Prior to the pandemic, rates of mental health concerns, including suicidality, were alarming,” says Dolan, who studies trauma-informed care and is the director of the SPH MPH mental health and substance use certificate. “With the challenges of social isolation, anxiety, fear of contagion, uncertainty, chronic stress, and economic difficulties, it is not surprising that we are seeing further increases in mood and substance use disorders that are associated with suicidal behavior.”
Based on outcomes from past collectively experienced traumatic events, “the mental health consequences of the pandemic are likely to be present for a long time and peak after the pandemic ends,” Dolan says.
Lipson, who will present and participate in today’s panel discussion, says she hopes that the event underscores that suicide is preventable.
“Suicide is not an individual problem, but rather a societal problem,” Lipson says. “There are failures at a system level that we must address, for these are the drivers that hold the most potential for large-scale prevention. I hope that folks gain a better understanding of the system-level drivers of suicide, as well as the ways in which discriminatory environments and policies shape inequalities and suicide risk.”
Event Details
Stopping Suicide (Panel 2)
This series of panels will address the daunting public health challenge of suicide prevention. #SPHConversations #StoppingSuicide
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2018 national suicide rate for males was 3.7 times the rate for females, and suicide rates were higher in the most rural counties compared with the most urban counties. Suicide is also the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 34. A JAMA Pediatrics study found that sexual minority youth are 3.5 times as likely to attempt suicide as their heterosexual peers.
Lipson also coleads The Healthy Minds Study, the most comprehensive national survey on mental health among college student populations. She says that annual survey results have shown an increase in rates of depression and suicidality over the past five years.
“It’s important to note that similar trends are seen in adolescent and young adult populations more broadly, meaning that this problem is not unique to campus environments,” she says. “These trends are deeply troubling and likely result from a confluence of factors, ranging from the impact of social media and mobile technology to sociopolitical events and resultant hopelessness about the future to systemic oppression to rising rates of food and housing insecurity.”
Event Details
Stopping Suicide (Panel Three)
This series of panels will address the daunting public health challenge of suicide prevention. #SPHConversations #StoppingSuicide
In 2018, almost half of the 48,344 US suicide deaths involved a firearm. Raifman was the lead author of a recent study that examined the relationship between the minimum age of US handgun purchasers and suicide among adolescents. She found that hundreds of suicides could be prevented each year in the United States if the 33 states where 18-year-olds are allowed to buy handguns raised the age limit to 21 years old.
“This study demonstrates the important role that policies can play in reducing suicide, particularly for populations at high risk, such as young adults,” says Raifman, who will expand on this topic as a presenter and panelist on October 15. “The United States has by far the highest level of firearm ownership in the world. This study contributes to a broad body of evidence that means restriction of firearms is effective for reducing suicide.”
She is particularly concerned about the economic impact of the pandemic on mental health. “All of the data I have seen in the wake of COVID suggests both that everyone is suffering and that people living in low-income households are suffering the most,” she says. “People living in low-income households have been the most likely to lose work, the least likely to have economic reserves, and the most likely to quickly face housing and food insecurity for themselves and their families.
“I am very concerned about suicide now that the federal supplement to unemployment insurance has expired and the Senate is not voting on a relief package for people in dire circumstances through no fault of their own,” Raifman says. In March, she and a team of SPH students developed the COVID-19 US State Policy Database to track social safety net policies and help facilitate research on suicide, mental health, and other pandemic-related outcomes.
Gradus, who studies trauma-related disorders and the associated impacts on suicide outcomes, will moderate the panel discussion on October 15. She says that suicide as a critical public health issue deserves more attention from the field than it has received.
“In all of our decades of studying suicide, we have gotten no better at predicting and preventing it,” Gradus says. “In contrast, we have gotten much better at predicting and treating other causes of death, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and as a result, deaths due to these causes have decreased.
“I think understanding this nuance is critically important to our thinking with regard to how we address suicide as public health practitioners and researchers.”
The first session of the three-part symposium Stopping Suicide: A Population Health Approach to Preventing Suicide is today, Thursday, October 1, from 4:30 to 6 pm on Zoom. The second panel is Thursday, October 8, from 1 to 2:30 pm, and the final panel is Thursday, October 15, from 4:30 to 6 pm. All of the sessions are free and open to the public. Find more information or register for each session here.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (Español: 1-888-628-9454; deaf and hard of hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, or visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/talk-to-someone-now/.
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