Nursing is among jobs with highest suicide risk

NURSES are more at risk of suicide than most other women, an official analysis warned yesterday.

However, suicide rates among male doctors have fallen in recent years.

The findings by the Office for National Statistics suggest there may be pressures on female nurses that are more serious than those affecting doctors or other medics.

The breakdown of trades and professions which carry the greatest risk of suicide said lowpaid and low-skilled workers are among the most vulnerable.

It also cited skilled construction workers, agricultural workers, and women in creative and media jobs as having higher suicide rates than average.

But it said there may have been improvement in the rates among male health professionals and farmers, whose risk of appears to be in decline.

The report – the first from the ONS on jobs with the most suicide risk – said information on the vulnerability of some workers may mean help can be targeted, and that it can provide a wider understanding of why people take their own lives.

It said that between 2011 and 2015 there were 18,998 suicides in England and Wales among people aged 20-64. In seven out of ten cases the job of the indi- vidual was recorded. There are a number of factors that can link occupation with suicide, the report said.

These include money pressures and the type of work, whether employees are likely to drink heavily, and in some cases if the job offers access to selfharm methods.

Among women, the report found the risk of health professionals killing themselves was 24 per cent higher than the female national average, adding: ‘This is largely explained by high suicide risk among female nurses.’ Suicide among female nurses was 23 per cent higher than the average for women.

The report said high suicide rates in male doctors and dentists were recorded in the 1990s, but now male doctors had a 16 per cent lower risk of suicide than the average for men.

‘The lower incidence of suicide among male health professionals in the most recent data could represent an improvement in this sector,’ the ONS said.

Most suicides among nurses were by poisoning, linked to their knowledge of and access to drugs. However, male medics share the same vulnerability.

The report added: ‘Elevated suicide among female nurses could be linked to a high incidence of psychiatric illness.’

Overall the lowest rates of suicide were among those in highly skilled occupations, for example, managers, chief executives, and senior officials.

‘Psychiatric illness’