Rising suicide rates

Associate Professor Yoram Barak

GISBORNE suicide rates have been between 35 percent and 65 percent higher than the national average in the 2002-2016 period, according to a Hauora Tairawhiti report.

Hauora Tairawhiti's community and public health advisory committee (CPHAC) received a Ministry of Health report on suicide over the periods 2001-2005, 2006-2011 and 2012 to 2016.

THE CPHAC report also said data consistently showed men, Maori and people living in rural areas were at higher risk of suicide.

The Ministry of Health report said the suicide rate in Tairawhiti fluctuated between 15 and 20 per 100,000 people over the three and five year periods.

Planning, funding and population health manager Nicola Ehau said mental health advocate Mike King and others were researching the causes of suicide, but it was a controversial issue in academia.

Meanwhile, Otago psychogeriatrician associate professor Yoram Barak has investigated the rates of death by suicide of older males aged 85 and over, comparing them to women of the same age, youth and young adults between 2011 and 2019.

For every 100,000 people, there were 23.5 deaths among 15-to-19-year-olds annually, 29 deaths among 20-to-24-year-olds, 27 deaths among 25-to-29-year-olds and 27.9 deaths in those aged over 85.

Associate Professor Barak looked at the latest provisional suicide figures released by New Zealand's chief coroner, which shows the overall suicide rate slightly increased over the 2018-2019 year to 13.93 people among every 100,000 people, up from 13.67 people in 2017-2018.

“The Chief Coroner's media release focused on the increase in the number of young people who die by suicide,” she said.

“However, it is concerning the chief coroner did not publicly comment on the finding that the suicide rate of oldest-old men is comparable to that of young men.

“Older men show the highest death by suicide rate in almost all countries, more than four times the USA's age-adjusted rate for white men and even higher rates in rural China.”

His analysis shows that between 2011 and 2019, the number of suicides of older men remained consistently high and almost doubled that of women of the same age.

In 2013, the suicide rate for men aged over 85 for every 100,000 people in New Zealand was 31, while women of the same age was seven.

The comparison blew out the following year to 39 men compared to four women, and in 2019 was 32 men compared to two women.

International research suggests the main risk factors for death by suicide among older men are becoming a widower, suffering from a mental disorder, physical illness and bereavement.

Loneliness, dementia and depression are common among the elderly who die by suicide.

Associate Professor Barak says it is possible that these same characteristics underlie the ominous rates of death by suicide amongst New Zealand's “oldest-old men”.

“Psychosocial adversity may be driving rates of death by suicide in older men in New Zealand.

“In a country that established a universal, tax-funded national health service with long-standing commitment to reducing health inequities, a focus on secondary services and performance targets has been prioritised over tackling issues such as suicide and poverty-related diseases,” he says.

“Research to inform about this vulnerable population and prevention are urgently needed.

“Our older citizens are owed a change in suicide awareness and prevention so that New Zealand may yet become a great country for older men.”