Suicide from a Public Health Perspective

It is globally agreed that suicide is a preventable and unnecessary death. Suicide is often referred to as a public health concern, but for prevention purposes, it is classified under mental health. Despite a large volume of research, only in recent years has there been an official acknowledgement of the complexity of suicide, but the whole issue of suicide including research, intervention and prevention remains firmly under the control of the mental health act in most Western countries. There is no statistical evidence to support mental illness and depression as the main causes of suicide. How do we comfort and explain to suicide survivors suicide of a loved one having bombarded the society with the fact that suicide is a preventable death? Is it a matter of convenience for all concerned to have something to blame suicide on for our failure to prevent it? As long as we allow politics to govern suicide prevention, the cost of suicide will increase year upon year and cycles in suicide trends will continue their pattern. Prevention starts at home, in school and in the community at the earliest age possible.