For once, BBC Radio Five Live’s phone in show, today conducted by the excellent Rachel Burden, did not concern the forthcoming General Election. So I decided to listen and now I am beginning to wonder if it had been better if I hadn’t.
Today’s topic was about suicide. I was shocked to find that 6233 people killed themselves in 2013, 78% of whom were men. In 1981, the percentage of men taking their lives was ‘only’ 63%. And, shockingly, for me at least, the highest rate of suicide is among men of between 45 and 59.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that, “the recent recession in the UK could be an influencing factor in the increase in suicides” and that “areas with greater rises in unemployment had also experienced higher rises in male suicides”. There’s a great big “could be” leaping out at me there but, whilst there is another “could be” in it, Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, is more specific:
“It is really shocking that men who are or could be in their prime of life should feel driven to such a state of hopelessness and despair for the future that they are taking their own lives.
“SANE’s own research shows that many suicides could be prevented, if people were able to talk more openly about their feelings and felt able to seek therapy or other help.
“Our concern is the number of suicides which are preventable and the fact that when people with mental illness hit crisis point, there are no available beds or units and they are sent home from A&E and left to suffer in silence.”
We’ve been here a great deal in recent weeks, not least with the discredited Liberal Democrats who have, after presiding over massive (8%) cuts in mental health provision since 2010, suddenly decided to promise to increase mental health funding. Despite the efforts of Lib Dem minister Norman Lamb, whose family has suffered personally from mental health issues, the reality is that no one can trust a word Nick Clegg’s party can say about anything since their elevation into government, least of all a promise to improve mental health provision.
And what of the Tories? They have said they will cut £12 billion in welfare payments and it does not require the brain of a rocket scientist to work out that the bulk of this money will come from the physically and mentally ill. It’s bound to, since the old are protected (as they should be), but the old are also protected because they vote. If the legions of sick and disabled people voted in the same numbers, do you think they would be ignored so much?
Is suicide a price worth paying in order to reduce the deficit or is there another way to ensure we have a country that takes active steps to look after our own? Do we really want to unleash unregulated survival of the richest and sod those who cannot look after themselves?
I wonder if any of the Old Etonians/Oxbridge/Chipping Norton sets have ever experienced suicide amongst family and friends? Maybe they have and find it as distressing as those of us who have, in my case on a number of occasions, in which case, don’t they care? I find it impossible to believe that just because you come from a life of advantage and privilege that you just don’t care about anyone else, believing instead that an unfettered free market will sort everything out. But that’s how it seems. This government has constantly referred to the “difficult decisions” it has had to make since 2010, but the decisions were only difficult for those who were affected by them. The difficult bit for politicians is to explain and justify themselves, which is why Cameron avoids debate and meeting ordinary voters.
Suicide really isn’t painless, not to anyone, and it’s getting more and more prevalent. Around 100 people are killing themselves every week, suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under 50.
This is a serious debate, but is anyone from the political class really listening?
