Student Suicide

Last updated: 3 May 2021

What the key facts about suicide rates at universities?

Here are some facts about suicide:

• SUICIDE IS THE BIGGEST CAUSE OF DEATH IN YOUNG ADULTS (1).
• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 788,000 lives were lost to suicide. This translates to one lost life every 40 seconds (3). In 2015, there were 6,188 recorded suicides in the UK, an average of almost 17 a day. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it (2)
• A record of 134 UK university students took their lives by suicide in 2015

• EACH SUICIDE AFFECTS A MUCH WIDER CIRCLE OF AROUND 135 PEOPLE (1)
• NEARLY 1 IN 4 YOUNG PEOPLE WILL EXPERIENCE SUICIDAL FEELINGS AT LEAST ONCE IN THEIR LIVES. 1 IN 20 WILL TRY TO TAKE THEIR OWN LIFE (1)

• STUDENT DEATH BY SUICIDE IS A GLOBAL CHALLENGE WITH REPORTED RATES IN THE USA, CHINA AND OTHER COUNTRIES BEING SIMILAR TO OR EVEN HIGHER THAN THE UK (1)

What are the preventable culprits behind student suicides?

Bullying and suicide, more commonly called "bullycide," is defined as a death by suicide where bullying is the causative factor. Bullycide was coined in 2001 by journalist Neil Marr and Tim Field in the book, Bullycide: Death at Playtime. Bullycide often occurs with children who cannot cope with the chronic abuse of bullying, and seeing no other way to escape it, die by suicide to end the suffering (3)

Bullying statistics in relation to suicide are alarming:

• Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University (5)
• Bullying survey's in Britain suggest that 33 to 50 percent of bully targets reported suicidal thoughts as a direct result of bullying (5)
• A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying (5)
• 10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide, according to the study above (5)

Similarly, a 2017 BBC Three documentary titled ‘Real Stories: Student Suicide’, revealed that ‘one third of students report feeling depressed or lonely’ while ‘nearly half of students with a mental health condition do not disclose it to their universities’.

To change the course of preventable suicide please

• share this fight to end thousands of annual cover ups of bullying, harassment and retaliation at UK universities https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/tackling-bullying-and-harassment-at-workplace/ and
• join the conversation on what should be done about covers ups of bullying, harassment and retaliation on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BRAINCURES/status/1233455578548178945?s=20
• sign this petition https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nqjhxxd9VoFFZiqrD0hRvyMo6DcZMyZVJjz9_2SzPZY/edit

One UK Student Dies by Suicide Every Four Days – and the Majority are Male. Why?

According to the Office of National Statistics, suicide rates among students in England and Wales have risen slightly over the past 10 years, with 1,330 student deaths by suicide – 1,109 (83 percent) were those of students studying at undergraduate level, while those studying at postgraduate level accounted for 221 deaths (17 percent). The year leading up to July 2017 saw a total of 95 student deaths by suicide – which equates to one every four days. Additionally, of the 1,330 deaths, there was a significant gender disparity - 878 (66 percent) were men, and 452 (34 percent) were women (6).

As shown below BBC News, reports that there were more than 2 million students studying at a university in England or Wales in the 12 months up to July 2017, meaning the suicide rate was 4.7 deaths per 100,000 students (9).

Why are suicide rates higher among males than females?

Statistics continue to show, that George E Murphy's explanation that “men value independence and decisiveness, and they regard acknowledging a need for help as weakness and avoid it”, while “women value interdependence, and they consult friends and readily accept help” may explain why women are less likely than men to commit suicide (7).

How can you help someone who is considering suicide?

• Take all talk or threats of suicide seriously. Don’t tell the person they are wrong or that they have a lot to live for. Instead, get them immediate medical help.
• Keep weapons and medications away from anyone who is at risk for suicide. Get these items out of the house or at least securely locked up.
• Parents should encourage their teens to talk about bullying that takes place. It may be embarrassing for kids to admit they are the victims of bullying, and most kids don’t want to admit they have been involved in bullying. Tell victims that it’s not their fault that they are being bullied and show them love and support. Get them professional help if the bullying is serious.
• It is a good idea for parents to insist on being included in their children’s friends on social networking sites so they can see if someone has posted mean messages about them online. Text messages may be more difficult to know about, so parents should try to keep open communications with their children about bullying.
• Parents who see a serious bullying problem should talk to school authorities about it, and perhaps arrange a meeting with the bully’s parents. More states are implementing laws against bullying, and recent lawsuits against schools and criminal charges against bullies show that there are legal avenues to take to deal with bullies. If school authorities don’t help with an ongoing bullying problem, local police or attorneys may be able to.

What do key opinion leaders think about suicide?

Professor Steve West, Vice-Chancellor of UWE Bristol and Chair of UUK’s Mental Health in Higher Education Advisory Group (8), said:

“When students take their own lives, it has a profound impact on family, friends, staff and students. This new guide offers practical advice on understanding and preventing suicide, as well as guidance on how best to support those most affected.

“We urge university leaders to work with their student support services to develop a strategy which focuses on preventing, intervening, and responding to suicide as part of an overall mental health strategy. Students and staff must be at the centre of this, and senior leadership within universities must build on their relationships with local authorities and the NHS to achieve real change.”

Nina Clarke, PAPYRUS deputy chief executive said (8):

“PAPYRUS has many years’ experience working in community-based suicide prevention initiatives, including universities. We were therefore delighted to be asked to co-produce this guide. Universities UK is in a position to raise greater awareness of the guide among institutions of higher education than we might do on our own. We hope that all universities will step up to this and we stand ready to support them in becoming suicide-safer.”

James Murray, father of Ben Murray, said (8):

“Our son Ben was amongst the two thirds of sudden deaths involving students not previously known to support services. We sincerely hope that the number of sudden deaths will reduce over time, but hope is not a strategy, and that’s why this guidance is so important.”

How are mental health matters looking at UK universities?

How are researchers supporting each other in mental health matters?

What has changed over the years?

Mental Health and COVID

References

1. Universities UK. SUICIDE-SAFER UNIVERSITIES. 2020. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2018/guidance-for-sector-practitioners-on-preventing-student-suicides.PDF
2. Usborne, S. The bold new fight to eradicate suicide. Guardian. 1 August 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/01/zero-suicide-the-bold-new-fight-to-eradicate-suicide
3. Bullycide https://lnkd.in/dy4zCNF
4. Ditch The Label 2019 Annual Bullying Survey https://www.ditchthelabel.org/annual-bullying-survey-2019/
5. Bullying statistics https://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html (accessed 25 August 2020)
6. One UK Student Dies by Suicide Every Four Days – and the Majority are Male. Why? 14 August 2018 https://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/health-support/one-uk-student-dies-suicide-every-four-days-majority-are-male-why
7. Murphy, GE. Why women are less likely than men to commit suicide? Comprehensive Psychiatry 1998. 39(4): 165-175 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010440X98900578
8. https://www.papyrus-uk.org/suicide-safer-universities/
9. BBC News. University student suicide rates revealed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44583922