{"id":7545,"date":"2018-09-20T14:28:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oakwoodtrainin.wpengine.com\/?p=7545"},"modified":"2023-12-06T13:46:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T13:46:37","slug":"suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Suicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excuse me if it looks like I\u2019m repeating myself, or being gloomy, but I need to talk about suicide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As usual, there\u2019s a timely reason for this, with Monday 10th September being designated World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), an initiative organised by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). So many acronyms; I\u2019m going to add my own: TUIMS \u2013 Totally Unacceptable In Modern Society! Grammatically, that\u2019s technically an \u2018initialism\u2019 but in the context of this blog, let\u2019s not dwell on negatives.<\/p>\n

Back to the business in hand, starting with a harrowing fact that I\u2019ve mentioned before (in blogs from April 2017<\/a> and the September<\/a> before). In the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50. It causes more deaths than road accidents and far more than cancer.<\/p>\n

But why are suicide figures weighted towards men?<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s no single answer to that, and I\u2019m sure you have your own ideas. For some men, the perceived consequences or embarrassment of seeking help are just too great. You know the sort of thing, whether real or imagined\u2026 What will the lads down the pub say? \u201cHe\u2019s soft or weak, or just pulling a fast one because he\u2019s lazy.\u201d Or he\u2019s \u201ca nutter or psycho.\u201d What would your dad think, or your grandad?<\/p>\n

Truth is that dads and granddads probably experienced those feelings too. Unfortunately, \u2018manning up\u2019 is what their society expected. And that\u2019s not supportive.<\/p>\n

However, support is available. Widely. Too many men shun that opportunity, or don\u2019t stop to think that it exists. Equally, there\u2019s a macho propensity for simply \u2018dealing with it myself\u2019; \u2018mustn’t grumble\u2019; \u2018cracking on reward less\u2019; \u2018same s**t, different day\u2019. What\u2019s the worst that can happen? <\/p>\n

Suicide. That\u2019s what.<\/p>\n

A glimmer of light?<\/h3>\n

We need to start conversations.That\u2019s the motive behind World Suicide Prevention Day. But I believe those conversations are beginning to happen. At the end of this dark tunnel, there may just be a glimmer of light\u2026<\/p>\n

In my April 2017 blog ‘Depression: Don’t Man up’<\/a>, the latest-available suicide data from the Office of National Statistics for 2015 showed a total of 6,188 suicides in the UK (against 1,732 for fatal road traffic collisions), split 75%-25% male to female.<\/p>\n

Now we have access to 2016 data. And there\u2019s a smidgen of good news. UK total suicides numbered 5,821. The ONS says this equates to an \u2018age-standardised suicide rate of 10.1 deaths per 100,000 population\u2019, articulating it more clearly this way: \u201cthis is one of the lowest rates observed since our time series began in 1981<\/strong>, when the rate was 14.7 deaths per 100,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simple maths tells me that this is a near-40% reduction in a little less than 40 years. And a significant drop of 5.93% in the space of one year. Is it that significant? My goodness yes, if you express that reality another way: in 2016, 367 fewer families and groups of friends had to deal with the trauma and tragedy of an unacceptable killer in their midst.<\/p>\n

Men, we still have a problem…<\/h3>\n

Sadly, though unsurprisingly for all the reasons I mentioned above, and many more besides I imagine, that male-female split remains unchanged at broadly 75%-25%. \u201cA proportion which has been mostly consistent since the mid-1990s,\u201d according to the ONS.<\/p>\n

The most recent episode of Horizon, the BBC\u2019s acclaimed investigative science TV programme, addressed this issue. It\u2019s entitled \u201cStopping Male Suicide\u201d<\/strong>. It is a fascinating and worrying study. Even before I watched the programme, what stood out for me was how the programme description points out that the thing most likely to kill the investigative presenter (Dr Xand Van Tulleken) is himself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ouch! I encourage you to take 59 minutes of you time to catch up with Horizon on iPlayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Depression is the most common underlying mental ill health issue linked to suicide. Though being depressed doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a person will have suicidal thoughts. I think it\u2019s fair to say that, left unchecked, depression can develop into a very serious problem that might impact a person\u2019s rational thinking.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always a build-up; one thought on top of another until it becomes unbearable. It\u2019s tragic that the vast majority of men who have taken their own lives never spoke to anyone or tried to get help. So if you think somethings wrong, don\u2019t assume someone else has it under control\u2026they probably don\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Something needs to be done!<\/h3>\n

The mission of the IASP through World Suicide Prevention Day is to get people, men in particular, to seek help or at least start a conversation. And we all have a role to play <\/strong>in that. When people can open up without fear of ridicule we will truly start to impact those stats, but here\u2019s a thought…<\/p>\n

Yes, government could be doing more but \u2018government\u2019 doesn\u2019t know my friend like I do<\/strong>. Forget the stats and society\u2019s greater issues for a minute. Why not focus on the impact that YOU could have in your own networks of colleagues, friends and family. Pick up the phone and let them know you care. Just imagine if we all did that, the stats would take care of themselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excuse me if it looks like I\u2019m repeating myself, or being gloomy, but I need to talk about suicide. As usual, there\u2019s a timely reason for this, with Monday 10th September being designated World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), an initiative organised by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). So many acronyms; I\u2019m going to add […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[43,53,59,60],"post_folder":[],"yoast_head":"\nSuicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society - Oakwood Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suicide: The Unacceptable Killer That Has No Place In A Civilised Society\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Suicide is an unacceptable killer. World Suicide Prevention Day, is all about raising awareness of how much of an issue this really is. Stats are one thing, but behind each and every one are real people torn apart by this an arguably preventable death.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Oakwood Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-20T14:28:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-06T13:46:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Social-Media-Sharing-Card-1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Terry Streather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Terry Streather\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/\",\"name\":\"Suicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society - Oakwood Training\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Blog-Header-Full-image-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-20T14:28:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-06T13:46:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/69cb1b6b9472dc11a23fab0539561219\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Blog-Header-Full-image-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Blog-Header-Full-image-2.png\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Suicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Oakwood Training\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/69cb1b6b9472dc11a23fab0539561219\",\"name\":\"Terry Streather\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0ac2fadbe2a0d235e6a05171be2b1f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0ac2fadbe2a0d235e6a05171be2b1f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Terry Streather\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/author\/terrystreather\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Suicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society - Oakwood Training","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Suicide: The Unacceptable Killer That Has No Place In A Civilised Society","og_description":"Suicide is an unacceptable killer. World Suicide Prevention Day, is all about raising awareness of how much of an issue this really is. Stats are one thing, but behind each and every one are real people torn apart by this an arguably preventable death.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/","og_site_name":"Oakwood Training","article_published_time":"2018-09-20T14:28:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-06T13:46:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Social-Media-Sharing-Card-1.png"}],"author":"Terry Streather","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Terry Streather","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/","url":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/","name":"Suicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society - Oakwood Training","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Blog-Header-Full-image-2.png","datePublished":"2018-09-20T14:28:33+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-06T13:46:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/69cb1b6b9472dc11a23fab0539561219"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Blog-Header-Full-image-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Blog-Header-Full-image-2.png","width":1920,"height":1280},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/suicide-the-unacceptable-killer-that-has-no-place-in-a-civilised-society\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Suicide: The unacceptable killer that has no place in a civilised society"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/","name":"Oakwood Training","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/69cb1b6b9472dc11a23fab0539561219","name":"Terry Streather","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0ac2fadbe2a0d235e6a05171be2b1f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0ac2fadbe2a0d235e6a05171be2b1f3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Terry Streather"},"url":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/author\/terrystreather\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30345,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions\/30345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oakwoodtraining.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}