Elderly top risk group for suicide

A high suicide rate among the elderly is being overlooked because they are expected to die anyway, experts say.

"It's amazing how many older people take their own lives and yet it doesn't arouse the same passion, horror, shame [as suicide among young people]," said Mental Health Foundation project manager Marie Hull-Brown.

"We are so ashamed at being at the top of the young suicides. I don't want us to get to the stage of the top of the older suicides at well."

The problem, and what to do about it, will be discussed at a Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand (Spinz) conference in Christchurch today and tomorrow.

Suicide among elderly men - 39.1 deaths per 100,000 - is a serious concern for health authorities as the population ages.

Rates of suicide attempts among elderly women were also high, Mrs Hull-Brown said.

"It never seems to catch people's attention because they expect older people to die and they don't see it in the same light as for the younger people."

Presbyterian Support spokesman Shaun Robinson said there was still a strong degree of ageism in New Zealand society, where the needs of elderly people were overlooked.

"At the moment there are many thousands of older people in the community who are living with levels of depression which aren't sufficiently high to warrant the mental health system intervening, but which certainly mean they are essentially miserable, and that is a recipe for personal neglect, and certainly suicide is one of the consequences of that."

Mrs Hull-Brown said loss of status and self-esteem, and loneliness led to depression that drove elderly men to take their own lives.

"The biggest problem for them is when their wives die and they are alone in the house. All right, they can get a certain amount of help, but it's that loneliness. There is nobody to touch and to talk to.

"Maybe they don't eat as well as they did, and aren't as physically strong, and don't feel as good about themselves."

Retirement was also a difficult adjustment for many men.

"They often had a high status at work, no matter how lowly the work they have done. They have had their mates there and they miss the mateship," Mrs Hull-Brown said.

"Often they feel a bit in the way at home. The younger generation, they will help out in the kitchen and with the babies. These men in their late 70s and 80s probably have not done as much of that. They will often offer to do something in the kitchen and take three times as long."

When depression did take hold, older men were reluctant to speak to their doctors or others about it.

"Men often think of it as a weakness. There should be more groups where men can get together and chat."

Mrs Hull-Brown also wanted to see more communication between neighbourhood support groups and community organisations to ensure elderly people stuck in their homes were not forgotten.