How Finland managed to halve its suicide rate
Finland reduced its suicide rate from 30 deaths per 100,000 citizens. Marieke Liem and Leah Prencipe, Professor of Violence and Interventions and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, discuss this in The Conversation.
Marieke Liem and Leah Prencipe explain how each suicide is unique 'with many precipitating factors and personal characteristics, adverse occurrences and failures to get help.' All these factors add up and finally cluster in a lethal way. This is why there is no single remedy when it comes to suicide prevention. However, Liem and Prencipe explain that there are several factors that may have contributed to the decline in the Finnish suicide rate.
According to Liem and Prencipe, the following factors contributed in the decline: 'The media learned to report on suicides in a neutral way – without glorifying or romanticising language. Policies were implemented to limit access to firearms and poisons. And the arrival of a new generation of antidepressants, with fewer side-effects, in the 90s may also have contributed to bringing down the rate.'
Read the full article on the website of The Conversation.