OVER 1,000 SUICIDES IN 19 YEARS
Police say 844 men, 164 women ended their lives during the period
MORE men have committed suicide than women since 2000, data recorded by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) have revealed.
Between 2000 and 2019 1,008 cases of suicide have been reported, with men accounting for 84 per cent of that figure.
This translates to 844 men whose deaths have been by suicide, senior communications strategist for the JCF Dennis Brooks told the Jamaica Observer, in contrast to 164 women
The figure for 2020, during which the country saw the emergence and rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, has not yet been tallied, he said, although it is not expected to be “quite different”.
Except for the year 2008, when more women (41) reportedly committed suicide than men (six), the latter group has steadily recorded higher cases each year.
The year 2000, which signalled the beginning of a new millennium, accounted for the most cases recorded in a single year for the aforementioned period, with 66 men and 11 women committing suicide.
A total of 10 suicides were reported in 2004, the year in which the country recorded the least number of suicides.
More than 30 cases of suicide have been recorded for every other year, the data, requested by the Sunday Observer, showed.
Counselling psychologist Andre Allen-Casey, in an interview with the Sunday Observer, suggested that men are more likely to commit suicide than women because of how they have been nurtured.
“There three Ps that are prevalent in males — the need to provide, the need to protect and to prove their power. So, if any of these three are taken away from them then as far as their value and worth are concerned it becomes diminished. Once that has become diminished then to a large extent what we have seen is the questioning of one's existence. Why do I need to live? I can't provide. I can't protect and I don't have the power or the means to ensure that these things occur,” said Allen-Casey of Family Life Ministries.
He said for most men, the limited ability to call on their inner self-regulating resources or to rely on intrinsic reward pushes them to “lash out” with unhealthy bids for power and dominance through violence and vengeance.
Allen-Casey said, too, that rejection sensitivity coupled with cultural male norms and a lack of emotional self regulation often point to violent risk.
“So in other words, [men] are a lot more prone to exercise risky violent behaviours because the sensitivity of their rejection. So, if you feel overwhelmed by a rejection, for example, your partner you have been with for years cheated on you, that's the sensitivity to rejection. There are some rejection in which the sensitivity is low, but if the sensitivity to some rejection is high plus cultural norms then the result is to do something violent either to the person or yourself,” he explained.
On the other hand, he said that women are better able to cope with or handle stress and that this may account for the lower figures being reported.
“Males tend to take rejection as a challenge to their masculinity. Women now are likely to feel emotionally hurt by a rejection and to assume that there is something lacking in them. So, they can become self-soothing to get over the insult rather than lashing out as males might do. Women are encouraged to get over it but men often feel that they need to get even and that again comes back to our cultural male norms.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that more than 700,000 people die by suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. It said suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan.
There are indications, WHO said, which show that for each adult who died by suicide there may have been more than 20 others attempting suicide.
The entity said 77 per cent of suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries in 2019 and that it accounted for 1.3 per cent of all deaths worldwide, making it the 17th leading cause of death in 2019.
WHO said in 2019, the global age-standardised suicide rate was higher in men (12.6 per 100 000) than in women (5.4 per 100 000). While for women the highest rates in countries were above 10 per 100 000 and for men they were above 45 per 100,000.
The organisation said globally, in 2019, the age-standardised suicide rate was two times higher in men than in women. Men to women suicide ratios greater than one indicated that suicide rates were higher in men than in women. While the ratio was a little over three in high-income countries and was lower in low- and middle-income countries.
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