SA men more likely to die by suicide than women: Sadag

SA men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women.

SA Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) operations director Cassey Chambers said World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics show more men than women commit suicide in SA.

“The interesting thing is that more women are diagnosed with depression than men and not necessarily that women have more depression than men. Men just don’t talk about it and don’t seek help,” she said. 

Earlier this month a male patient, 34, died after he jumped from the sixth floor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria and a 29-year-old man fell to his death at Menlyn Park Mall.

In July, a 31-year-old man fell at the same mall and was taken to hospital where he died.

Chambers said the complexity of suicide and why someone chose a certain place to do it varied.

“There are a lot of suicides that happen and we don’t see [them] and it’s not public. It’s not in places that we could find out about. It could be home, it could be in the backyard, and it could be far away from people.

“We can’t assume or speculate that more suicides happen in public areas; it’s only the ones we hear about now, but there could be lots of suicide happening privately, quietly or away from the public.”

Men use more “aggressive” methods to commit suicide and have more access or means to suicide.

She said women sometimes overdose on medication and tablets rather than hanging or using guns.

“We do know that SA men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women. When we look at suicide, it’s never one reason or one contributing factor — it is a combination of issues and each case is unique and different and it could be a relationship with families, partners, husbands, wives and friends.”

Trauma is a contributing factor. “The financial status, maybe losing a job or not being able to find a job, incredible stress at work and the financial aspect can be a big contributing factor.”

There are many contributing factors that make an individual feel so overwhelmed, helpless and hopeless that they resort to suicide.

“I think also we are always speculating as to why people use public spaces. Some of the information has to do with access, accessibility and the situation,” she said.

SA has always had a problem with suicide, but over the past few months it had been under the spotlight, particularly because of high-profile suicides.. 

“[Because of that] more people are talking about [depression and suicide] which is important to use this opportunity to create awareness and encourage people to seek help,” she said.

“We have an estimated 23 suicides every day. And for every one suicide, there are 20 attempted suicides — it is a problem we have been dealing with for a long time.”

Calls to Sadag have increased every month from people around the country from different backgrounds, age groups, races and socio-economic backgrounds.

“We know the leading contributing factor to suicide is depression, so hearing about all these stories and seeing these cases is an incredible tragic loss of life,” she said.

Lifeline social worker Tinyiko Chauke said: “Men underplay the stress caused by these symptoms, drowning their depression and anxiety with poor coping behaviours, increasing their risk of anxiety or depression to go unrecognised and untreated. Violence and other socio-economic factors also contribute. Mostly, men choose lethal methods to cope with mental health problem or problems in general.”

Michelle Donnelly — project leader of Advocacy and Awareness at the SA Federation for Mental Health — said according to the WHO Global Health Estimates Suicide Worldwide Report published in 2019, SA recorded the third-highest suicide rate in Africa.

“According to this report, 13,774 suicides were reported in SA in 2019. Of these deaths, 10,861 were men while 2,913 were women. This translates to rates of 37.6 per 100,000 for men and 9.8 per 100,000 for women. In other words, men are nearly four times more likely to die by suicide compared to women.”

Suicide, suicide attempts, suicide ideation and self-harm are public health concerns affecting all countries.

The trend of more men dying by suicide more than women has long been recorded. Donnelly said suicide is a sensitive, complex issue and its causes were multiple.

However, research pointed to some risk factors, including gender stereotypes and depression.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has compounded uncertainty, hopelessness and inequality. Now more than ever, we must encourage action promoting suicide prevention. Suicide is not inevitable and can be prevented with timely, evidence-based interventions,” she said.

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