The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report stating that 48,344 people died by suicide in 2018; it was 47,173 in 2017.
Although the increase was small, the suicide rate has been steady for years, which has climbed 35 percent since 1999.
In 2018, suicide and influenza/pneumonia were two of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States.
Psychologist April Foreman at the American Association of Suicidology said, “I was 100% unsurprised. That’s not acceptable. We need to start treating these deaths seriously and respecting these survivors by upping our game in public health.”
Suicide is American’s 10th leading cause of death. The CDC said, “In 2017, 10.6 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan, and 1.4 million attempted it.”
More and more Americans are dying of suicide in spite of increased awareness and less stigma attached to suicide. Some experts blame a lack of funding, explaining that there are not enough funds to research and combat suicide.
In 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent around $103 million on suicide and suicide prevention. However, in the same year, NIH spent $689 million on studying breast cancer, which killed only a few thousand people. In 2018, NIH spent $147 million on suicide and suicide prevention.
Experts said that it is impossible to solve the problem when it has not been well understood.
Foreman said, “We’ve tried a lot of things, including telling everybody to just magically know the signs and care more. I don’t think that’s going to work. We haven’t tried … spending at the scale of the problem, and since we have tried it with other diseases and it’s worked, there’s no reason to not try it.”
Earlier this month, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention announced that it had moved into “Phase II of Project 2025,” a plan to reduce the suicide rate by 20 percent in the next 10 years. The project mainly focuses on four different areas – firearms, healthcare systems, emergency departments, and corrections systems.
The plan would significantly reduce the suicide rate within 30 years if it is successfully implemented.
“If you look at the history of suicide prevention, you will see several similar movements in the past where they say, ‘We want to reduce this rate by so much by this time,’” said Foreman said.
“I think that’s the right goal, but I don’t see us absolutely insisting for the … changes that we would need to get there.”
