At yesterday's mental health conference sponsored by the Illinois Federation of Families (FF) and other agencies, IFF had a booth with various panels and statistics from areas of concern to IFF.
Statistics were posted of the incidence of suicide among the younger populations. Consider these statistics:
Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in the 15-24-year-old age group.
Suicide is the 6th leading cause of death in the 5-15-year-old age group.
The rate of suicide in the 15-24-year-old group has tripled since 1960.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for college-age students.
More teenagers and young adults died as a result of suicide in 1999 than by cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, birth defects, stoke and chronic lung disease combined.
For every older teen and young adult who takes his or her life, 100-200 of their peers attempt suicide. Between 500,000 and 1 million young people attempt suicide each year.
The above figures came from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Association of Suicidology.
Valuable information for preventing suicide and surviving suicide loss can be found on the website of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at www.afsp.org Take a few minutes now and read the risk factors and warning signs, found on that site under "About Suicide."
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3 comments:
Are you concerned about suicide overall or just suicide in younger age groups?
My concern is suicide at all ages. By coincidence, these figures were available at the conference I attended yesterday.
More interesting statistic. 20% of all suicides are vets.
Scary? Yeah, I know.
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