Alana Atkinson: Committed to reducing number of Scots deaths

It’s not a problem that’s exclusive to Scotland – the prevalence of higher male suicide rates is a global phenomenon – but Scotland is focused on doing something about it.

The Scottish Government developed the Choose Life strategy in 2002 to raise awareness, deliver suicide prevention training, engage local communities and share knowledge, and in the past nine years we’ve seen a 14 per cent drop in the numbers of people dying by suicide.

Reducing male suicides continues to be a challenge, and one we are committed to taking on.

We can’t say for sure why there continues to be more suicides in Scotland than the rest of the UK, but we do know depression is a main risk factor and can be brought on or exacerbated by difficult life circumstances. Financial and employment worries can have a serious impact on a person’s relationships, self esteem and sense of optimism, which we know can increase vulnerability to suicide.

We encourage people to talk about their problems to a trusted listener and seek practical help they need as early as possible.

It’s greatly concerning that the research indicates that more men are dying by hanging than any other method of suicide in Scotland.

With a lack of opportunity to control this we feel strongly that the media should not report the means by which people die by suicide, as there is strong evidence to show that information about suicide methods can lead to copycat deaths.

A better understanding of the health behaviours and social factors associated with suicide in Scotland will help us in achieving our aim of reducing as many deaths by suicide as we can, and we welcome the follow-up findings to this research.

• Alana Atkinson is programme manager of Choose Life, a strategy to prevent suicide in Scotland.