Rising Elderly Suicide Rates Raising Alarm

By Lindy Keri, ABC News

Australia

September 6, 2007

New research has highlighted a growing number of men aged 75 and over, who are taking their lives. (Reuters: Rick Wilking)

There has long been concern about the alarmingly high rate of suicide among Australian men, with the focus particularly on suicide rates among males under 25.

But new research from the Griffith University in Queensland has highlighted a growing number of men aged 75 and over, who are taking their lives.
On any given day, around five Australian men will decide to end their lives. In the past, suicide prevention programs have targeted men under the age of 25, especially in remote areas.

But Dr Helen Klieve, from the Australian Institute of Suicide Research and Prevention at Brisbane's Griffith University, says there is another worrying trend emerging.

"The highest rates are now in the 25-to-34-year-old [age group], 35-to-44 year-olds [have] the next highest rate, and fairly close to that is the 75 plus year-old males," she said.

Dr Klieve's research focused on suicide rates in Queensland, but she says it raises alarm bells across Australia.

Lowering risk factors

Caroline Aebersold from Suicide Prevention Australia says it is a trend her organisation is closely monitoring, to make sure prevention programs are effective.

"Many of the key risk factors for suicide, across any age or demographic, are quite similar, in that some of the key risk factors around loss and grief, a loss of purpose in life, a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, isolation and certainly depression," she said.

"Many of those factors are very common and really at the end of the day, people don't end their lives because they want to die, they end their lives because they can't bear to live any more."

Ms Aebersold says risk factors for older men include loneliness, poor health and difficulties in coping with life in retirement. 

"And one of the things that this research from Griffith University has identified recently, that often where there are physical symptoms, they might be still quite related to psychological symptoms," she said. 

"So it might be that the physical symptoms are a manifestation of underlying psychological factors, which is quite common, particularly in men, who tend to have less help-seeking behaviour. 

"But we also might find that there are underlying psychological factors, some of that research indicated that quite a high percentage of people who had cancer and suicided, also had a depressive disorder."

Professor Ian Hickie from the national depression initiative, Beyond Blue, says it is crucial older men have access to treatment. 

"What's clear from Australian data and internationally, is that treatment for depression has a particular effect in older men," he said.

"So what we know is you can reduce suicide rates if you get services, particularly treatment for depression to men in later life."

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