6,000 people die in the UK every year (Suicide)

[Jorginho5]

It is still shocking how services for mental health is still underfunded.

What should be done in your opinion to help those with mental health?

So sad. I have had 2 male gay ( not sure that makes a difference but I think gay people are statistically more at risk) friends hang themselves in the past few years. Both had had depression to some extent but the family and friends of neither saw it coming. One had been dismissed from his job and alienated from work colleagues who were like family to him. There seems to be a lack of crisis teams and support around but then one of my friends would have been very reluctant to access that anyway.

Many reasons for suicide

Think one thing we as humans can control is being nice to others. Unfortunately a lot of suicides do happen from bullying others.

Honestly? I think modern living is, in many ways, completely fucked up. People don’t interact with each other, and the pressure to perform or have the perfect insta-life is crazy.

On the other hand, recent celebrity suicides seem to be getting mental health more talked about, so hopefully the stigma (whether real or imagined) is being negated gradually.

Shocking stats, though.

So sad. I have had 2 male gay ( not sure that makes a difference but I think gay people are statistically more at risk)

Yes I think that a disproportionately % of male suicides are committed by gay men.

If only society was more accepting.

I believe suicide figures are actually much higher than that but getting a coroner's verdict as suicide is very difficult if there is no note. Often the verdict is misadventure or as in BILs case a narrative verdict. This is why many other countries show a higher suicide rate than the UK.

As someone who has been in that dark place and is only alive by sheer luck, I’m honestly not sure if better funding would have helped. I was too mentally unwell to engage in any sort of meaningful work with MH service. I’m being honest though and I’m sure it’s not the same for everyone.

France for example has double the official rate than the UK because they count it differently.

Still shocking though.

Sunny I do agree, my partner did it. Funding would have made no difference. I think some institutions can offer more and better support. More funding and talking and acceptance of mental health struggles can only be welcomed.

If we could tackle domestic violence, violence against women, and child abuse, the suicide rate would plummet.

• Surviving sexual assault as a child or adult leaves people with an elevated risk of suicide.

• As a direct result of domestic violence, every week;

2 women are murdered by a partner or ex 30 women attempt suicide and 8 people commit suicide, most of them women.

• Crisis care needs to be better funded. People dont always seek help but the ones that do are often turned away.

Of course more funding would help. Right now, the way you have to "engage" is another way to save money. If you're too poorly to engage but you don't commit violent crimes, you can just go ahead and die and therefore relieve some of the strain on the services. That's the way it's set up, on purpose: like how disability benefits are often initially denied and then allowed on appeal, because they want you to give up and die so they can pretend it wasn't their fault. Of course there are ways they could help more people with more money/staff.

UpstartCrow those are very good points. My mental health problems are from child abuse. I had teachers who knew I was being abused but didn't do anything, probably because I would have had the same or worse outcomes in care. It's appalling.

Funding and 'help' only really helps if the first serious attempt fails. THEN steps can be taken.

That's the position that I'm in now with my DH. His attempt was a serious one (miracle he survived), leading to a complete mental breakdown and he has been under intensive mental health care now for over 2 years.

I need mental health care, but I don’t feel as though I can ask for it as I’m not at crisis point. You feel guilty asking for help knowing others are worse off and resources are so scarce.

I’m a functional depressive and I have a lot of anxiety due to my aspergers. I take antidepressants, but some days all I can think about is killing myself.

Everything in this country seems to be at crisis point - health, crime, housing, education, social care etc. Everything’s crap and has only basic funding so many people must be slipping through the net. I agree with a previous poster who said that they just want people to go away and die.