Suicide is an emotional and distressing issue which has been very prominent in social media and in the news in recent weeks and months. But are the British government doing enough to prevent it and to provide support to people who are at risk. Suicide is a growing problem that can affect people no matter what their age, gender, race or class. Suicide is one of the worst and most upsetting causes of death in not just in Britain but in the world, it has been becoming a problem for a long time and seems to be getting worse we go on. Suicide doesn’t only effect adults but young people too. But for young men it is one of the biggest causes of death.
Firstly, an issue which is becoming very worrying is the age of people committing suicide is getting younger and younger and what the government are doing to stop this from happening, teenage suicides are rising but males are higher. “15-24 year olds rates increased by 52.7% this is the highest it has been since 2007”. This is a big problem for the country because young people are starting to find out what suicide is because it is happening to people they know, and they don’t fully realise what it means. They also often find that it is difficult to find help when they require it. The waiting list for psychological help in some areas is as much as a year and even then it is only available for a short time. Schools and education authorities have a responsibility to help and support young people in need. There is also an argument for greater education in classrooms about mental health.
Another worry is that there are too many suicides every day, there are 123 suicides per day on average in the UK, Men in the UK are 3 times more likely to commit suicide than woman and often choose methods which are sure to succeed. Men aged 45-49 are particularly at risk. There were just under 7000 suicides in the UK in 2018. This is a massive number. Society should be making every effort to work out why there are so many deaths due to suicide and doing everything it can to solve the problem.
My solution for the prevention of suicide is that the UK appoint a minister for suicide prevention, this shows that the UK are trying to solve this problem as quick as possible , and this has helped because suicide rates has decreased since this happening . However they should ask the Republic of Ireland for help because their suicide rates are at their lowest since 1989. The UK have also introduced a plan to stop this with the main focus on social media and technology. They have invested £25 Million pounds into this plan to reduce the deaths by one of Britain’s biggest killers.