Canada’s suicide crisis in older men

Viewpoint: Winnipeg Free Press When we hear about suicide prevention, we often assume it’s young people most at risk. But Canada is facing an aspect of the grey tsunami it has largely ignored: older men are fast becoming an at-risk group.

In this country, men make up nearly 75 per cent of suicide decedents. Think about that for a moment.

While women have a higher rate of attempting suicide, suicide attempts by men are more often deadly. According to Statistics Canada, this is because women tend to choose less certainly fatal methods, such as poisoning, in which death can be prevented through medical intervention, whereas men are more likely to use more violent methods such as hanging or firearms.

News coverage in recent months has focused on the suicide epidemic in communities such as Attawapiskat, a First Nations in northern Ontario that declared a state of emergency following 11 deaths by suicide. Indeed, data from Health Canada shows the suicide rate is up to five times higher for indigenous men than nonindigenous men (126 deaths per 100,000 people, as opposed to 24 deaths). So why is it about to become a bigger problem across the country? Because people are getting older. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention identifies men as an at-risk group with increased risk of death by suicide in the 40- to 50-yearold age range; a study by the B.C. Medical Journal found the risk peaked around 50 years of age, then decreased, but increased again in men nearing 80 years of age. That’s where the baby boomers are headed.