The suicide of a young person is above all a tremendous family tragedy, but at the same time it is also a social problem of growing proportions which urgently requires preventive measures. The old veil of silence surrounding this drama has not worked and may have become counterproductive. The stigmatizing obfuscation has been widely questioned by experts under normal circumstances, but has not been an option since the pandemic. In 2020, the most recent year for which figures are available, suicide was the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29, behind only cancer. In the same year, 3,941 people took their own lives in Spain, the highest number in history. Overall, suicide is already the leading cause of external (non-natural) deaths in Spain, ahead of road accidents. Attempts among the population ages 10 to 24 more than tripled between 2006 and 2020, and hospitalizations for self-harm have nearly quadrupled over the past two decades. In particular, the increase in cases of women increases concern and leads to questioning of the cultural causes of this boom and strengthening preventive measures.
Eight Spanish public hospitals from five municipalities, including Madrid and Catalonia, have joined a clinical study – the Survive project – with the intention of designing the first national plan aimed at reducing suicide among young people between 13 and 18 years of therapy with 300 people of that age who have already attempted suicide. The results will be published in early 2023. Another line of research focuses on adults. The conclusions of the project can be important to offer concrete guidelines and avoid an outcome that is not always fatal and where there is significant room for manoeuvre. For every completed suicide, 20 attempts are registered in the general population, with the months immediately following the first attempt being particularly critical for young people. In an age as complex as adolescence, in which new technologies and especially social networks are becoming more relevant as sources of danger, it is crucial to identify individual, family and social risk factors. One piece of information can be used to calibrate what this conflicting moment in life means in today’s society: According to a study by the FAD Youth Foundation last year, 25% of young people between the ages of 15 and 29 took psychotropic drugs and more than 44% had suicidal thoughts and Mutua Madrileña.
Adolescent suicide is just one facet, albeit one of the most painful, of the growing concern about mental health as a serious social and health problem. Health and communities agreed in May on a necessary three-year care plan, endowed with 100 million, whose six lines of action include prevention, early detection and attention to suicidal behavior. The most immediate result was the launch of 024, the first phone designed in Spain to avoid this problem, which has since answered more than 34,000 calls. About 300 reach him every day. It’s a useful tool for listening and for professional help, but perhaps it’s time to consider developing a specific national response plan, as some experts are urging. A single or multiple reasons can make a person want to kill themselves. Experts often repeat that those who take their own lives do not want to die, they want to stop suffering. The expression means that the problem affects all citizenship.