An Important Message About Suicide Prevention

An Important Message About Suicide Prevention From The National Council For Behavioral Health

Preventing Suicide is Everyone’s Business: Statement by Linda Rosenberg, President and CEO

The high-profile deaths by suicide last week of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and designer Kate Spade shed light on a growing national problem. While other causes of death are declining, the suicide rate keeps climbing – alarmingly so. The same week Bourdain and Spade died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a studywhich revealed that suicide rates increased in all but one state between 1999 and 2016, with half of those states seeing an increase of 30 percent. Nearly 45,000 Americans died by suicide in 2016 – that’s one person every 12 minutes.

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade and to anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide. Clearly, suicide is not an isolated incident and it’s not just a mental health problem. The CDC reported that more than half – 54 percent – of people who died by suicide did not have a diagnosed mental health condition. Among the other factors that contributed to suicide deaths were relationship problems, substance use, physical illnesses, job loss and money troubles. Suicide is a public health problem that can and must be prevented.

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Suicide Rates Are Increasing

What You Should Know

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the US. Suicide rates increased in nearly every state from 1999 through 2016. Mental health conditions are often seen as the cause of suicide, but suicide is rarely caused by any single factor. In fact, many people who die by suicide are not known to have a diagnosed mental health condition at the time of death.

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