New Medscape Report Finds One in 10 Doctors Consider Suicide; Most Don’t Seek Professional Help, but Generational Differences Point to Potential for ChangeCision PR Newswire
March 4, 2022
A new report by MedScape has found that 1 in 10 physicians in the US have thought about or attempted suicide, and only one third have sought help. “As the mental health toll of the pandemic continues to emerge, and stigma in general is lessening, our report shows that it is still a significant issue within the medical profession,” said Leslie Kane, senior director, Medscape Business of Medicine. “Physicians deserve the same recognition and understanding, and the ability to seek the care they need without fear of repercussion. It is incredibly sad that a tragedy needed to occur to spur action, but it is a much needed step in the right direction.”

More Black Americans are buying guns. Is it driving up Black suicide rates?NPR
March 3, 2022
25% of Black adults in the US own a gun, a 14% increase compared to 2015. Suicides of young Black men have also increased. According to a Pew Research survey, the number one reason people buy guns is for self-defence. Sharis Lewis started carrying a firearm because she didn’t want to rely on police intervention to protect her, “Some people, they rely on law enforcement, which, for African Americans, that’s not always the safest course of action either,” Lewis says. “I would rather control the situation.” One suicide prevention initiative taking place that focuses in on firearms is the Safer Homes Collaborative, a project based at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The Collaborative seeks to educate gun sellers, owners, and their family members to temporarily remove access to firearms when people are experiencing a suicidal crisis. Bill Mays, a member of the Safer Homes Collaborative, delivers educational materials to gun shops in St. Louis. Mays explains the importance of making firearms harder to access in a crisis and intervening with the person in crisis, “That’s the thing about suicide, is that you can have that feeling, but if someone intervenes, you know, that feeling can… go away,” Mays said. Deb Azrael, associate director of the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center explains of harm reduction among gun owners, “Gun ownership is more diverse now, and so when we talk to people about the risks of guns, we want to make sure we’re reaching out across the board, and not just to the people we’ve typically thought of as gun owners in the past.”

Marching for suicide prevention in KuujjuaqNunatsiaq News
March 2, 2022
Nunavik’s annual Suicide Prevention Week took place last week, and a march was held to raise awareness of suicide prevention.

Inquest jury rules Sanirajak man’s death a homicideNunatsiaq News
March 3, 2022
An inquest into the death of Jeremy Nuvviaq, 39, was closed last week. The inquest found that Nuvviaq’s death, which was argued to be ‘suicide by cop,’ to be a homicide. Jurors felt that more could have been done to prevent Nuvviaq’s death before he was killed by an RCMP officer. The jury did acknowledge that suicide prevention training could mitigate similar deaths, and offered 17 recommendations to the RCMP and Government of Nunavut including: specialized training for RCMP officers to avoid ‘suicide by cop’ training in de-escalation, providing consistent funding for Embrace Life counselling to provide suicide prevention education to the general public on a regular basis and forming community men’s groups to help men share information and resources about suicide prevention.

Las Vegas Raiders donate $100K to LGBTQ+ suicide prevention and advocacy groupThe Hill
March 2, 2022
American football team the Las Vegas Raiders have donated $100,000 to The Trevor Project, a LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization in the US, matching the donation of Carl Nassib, the NFL’s first openly gay player. Nassib gave $100,000 to The Trevor Project when he came out publicly in an Instagram post last June. Nassib said he wanted to promote the organization to “bring visibility and representation to the NFL, to sports, and we did it for the youth, for the kids who are struggling the most.” 

Suicide is Rising Among Younger Students. Here’s How Schools Can Prevent TragedyEducation Week
March 1, 2022
This article discusses the importance of suicide prevention among elementary school students. “A lot of adults view elementary school-aged kids as incapable of experiencing the level of emotional distress that could lead someone to consider suicide, but we know very objectively that’s not true,” said John Ackerman, a clinical pediatric psychologist and suicide-prevention coordinator with the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “We know that young kids absolutely can be in deep, emotional pain. They can have a desire to die but not always fully understand the implications of that. So their behavior can be a lot more impulsive; moving from thought to action happens more swiftly.” The article highlights a suicide prevention curriculum being used in elementary schools in Connecticut.

Suicide by domestic violence: call to count the hidden toll of women’s livesGuardian
February 27, 2022
**Content warning – details of domestic violence** This article explores the connection between female suicide and domestic violence. In the UK, 1 in 8 female suicides are related to domestic violence, however, the full extent of the connection between female suicides and domestic violence is still unknown. “Coroners now record if a person is a veteran when there is a suicide so we can start counting,”  said Sarah Dangar, a domestic abuse consultant. “Why don’t they dig deeper and record if domestic abuse is present in a woman’s suicide? Once we have the evidence base of the extent of the problem – and the indications are that it is significant – we can push harder for a criminal justice, public health and suicide prevention response. This is preventable.”

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