World Suicide Prevention Day: Here’s how to help in 2021 - WTOP

More than 700,000 people die by suicide each year, according to the World Health Organization.

Translated: Every 40 seconds, someone in the world takes their own life. That’s a sobering statistic to ponder today, on 2021’s World Suicide Prevention Day.

Suicide rates have been climbing for years in some parts of the world. In the United States alone, suicide rates have increased by 35% between 1999 and 2018. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls suicide a “growing public health problem.”

Experts fear suicidal thoughts may escalate due to economic hardship and mental stress caused by another lethal crisis facing the world — Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

A leading public health group estimated last year that as many as 75,000 Americans could die due to drug or alcohol misuse and suicide connected to the pandemic.

President Joe Biden expressed his concern in a proclamation released Thursday announcing that September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day in the US.

“In 2019, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, and the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 34,” Biden wrote.

“And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic compounded, for many, feelings of isolation, exhaustion, and economic and public health-related anxieties. Increased rates of depression have sparked concern that we will see a further increase in suicide rates.”

A study released in June further highlights those...



Read Full Story: https://wtop.com/health-fitness/2021/09/world-suicide-prevention-day-heres-how-to-help-in-2021/

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