Most Violent Deaths in America

More than 800,000 people take their own lives each year, according to estimates by the World Health Organization — that’s one person every 40 seconds. Up to 25 times as many make a suicide attempt.

Suicide is a major problem our society needs to address. We’ve known this, we’ve grieved over loved ones lost, and we’ve vowed to raise awareness — yet the statistics haven’t changed. Where are we going wrong?

Men have a harder time finding the words to describe how they feel.

Men are more likely to die by suicide than women — but women are more likely to attempt suicide. American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) tend to have the highest rate of suicides, followed by non-Hispanic whites. Older adults had the highest suicide rates for decades, but deaths among middle-aged adults (ages 24-62) have increased to comparable levels. White males comprise over 80 percent of all late-life suicides. Suicide, tragically, also remains the second leading cause of death for those ages 15 to 34.

Will “connect, communicate, care” — the theme for this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10 — make any difference?

It might, according to Dr. Eric Caine, professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and co-director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. But it will take family and friends paying closer attention to the signs someone is in distress and to address it earlier than we have, to really make a difference.

“Of course we have to deal with someone who is suicidal, who is at the edge, who has lost hope and is desperate and is in such pain and stress that we need to intervene now. But at the same time, what a lot of us are saying is — that approach hasn’t worked. It hasn’t changed the suicide rates. The rates have gone up,” Caine told LifeZette.

Related: Guess Who’s Most at Risk for Suicide

“We’ve got to go back and start looking at people with substance use problems, people with family violence, kids who are traumatized, adults who are traumatized, elders who are in pain and have chronic disease and become socially isolated — and make a difference for them long before they ever become suicidal. It’s a mix of strategies,” he said.

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The challenge at the edge, Caine added, is that many people don’t want to be found. “They don’t advertise — they’ve made up their mind. So sometimes they’re not very verbal about it.”

Men, especially, are not very open, and they have a harder time finding the words to describe how they feel. Caine said it’s tough when you feel not only physically isolated and alone, but also emotionally isolated and alone.

The latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that three to six weeks before someone dies of suicide, there has usually been a family break-up, a legal problem, mental health issues, a job loss, or intimate partner violence, which often comes with an order of protection that separates (most often) a man from his family. This is important to note, said Caine, because it’s effective. But it also cuts men off from their support network. And they’ve known this for quite some time — these findings don’t reveal anything new.

“The willingness to talk about suicide amongst soldiers, people in the military more generally, and veterans has finally begun to desensitize the topic,” said one researcher.

Still, all of these things combined are contributing to the growing number of suicides among middle-age men, specifically.

There are real efforts being made to address these problems on a very local level, nationwide, said Caine. “There’s a new thinking that’s finally starting to penetrate the field.”

His center is working with the state of Colorado and others to develop a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention — from kids to elders, and among both men and women.

Other organizations, along with local, state, and federal health officials, are trying to address suicide in new ways as well. Even gun clubs are taking this issue on, encouraging their members to “connect, communicate, and care” enough to perhaps hold onto a friend’s gun for a while without consequence if a fellow gun owner might be suicidal.

“I think it’s starting to finally seep into people. My sense is that the willingness to talk about suicide amongst soldiers, people in the military more generally, and veterans has finally begun to desensitize the topic with the more general population,” said Caine.

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“It hasn’t become pink ribbons or red ribbons or yellow ribbons, but it’s moving down the road where it’s beginning to build the kind of momentum that lots of people will say, ‘I want to make a difference.'”