Thursday 17 January 2013

10 Reasons Young Men Kill Themselves


One million people take their own lives every year and most of them are men.

In England and Wales men are three times more likely to commit suicide and 10 men every day kill themselves.

Men are twice as likely as women to have suicidal thoughts and 90% of these men will have a mental health problem at the point where they kill themselves.

Men of all ages and backgrounds are at greater risk of suicide than their female counterparts and this post focuses on young male suicide.

Suicide is now the biggest killer of young men aged 16-34 in the UK taking the life of 930 young men every year according to CALM UK

Male suicide is not a selfish act, it is an act of desperation by a man in intense pain and male suicide is preventable 

Suicide: 10 Reasons Why Young Men Are At Risk Of Suicide 

1. Lack Of Support
2. Lack Of Effective Coping Strategics
3. Lack Of Male Role Models
4. Violence Against Men And Boys 
5. Trouble With The Law
6. Lack of family support
7. Lack Of Education
8. The Burden Of Peacekeeping
9. Male Unemployment
10. Lack of appropriate help services


1. Lack Of Support

Seven of out 10 (67 per cent) of suicidal young men say they have nowhere to turn for emotional help according to The Samaritans

2. Lack Of Effective Coping Strategics

Suicidal young men are four times more likely to smoke and ten times more likely to take an illegal drug to relieve stress (Samaritas)

Young men are the most likely group to tell a friend to ‘pullthemselves together’ if they were feeling low. (Mind)

Young men (18 to 24) were five times as likely to take recreational drugs when worried as young women (Mind)

Almost twice as many men as women drink alcohol to cope with feeling down a strategy used by 16 per cent of men compared to 8 per cent of women (Mind)

4 out of 10 men who attempt suicide are chronic problem drinkers and 7 out of 10 male suicides are alcohol related (Mental Health Foundation)

More than one in three young men would 'smash something up' instead of talking about their feelings according to The Samaritans

3. Lack Of Male Role Models

Less than one in five young men feels able to ask their father for emotional support

Suicidal young men are significantly more likely to have no relationship with their father (Katz et al,1999) with Swedish researchers finding that suicidal men are twice as likely to be fatherless

Research by the Prince’s Trust has found that young men who lack of male role model are three times more likely to be depressed.

4. Violence

8 out of 10 (78%) of depressed and suicidal young men have experienced bullying (Samaritans)

7 out of 10 (69%) of suicidal young men have experienced violence from an adult (Violence)

75% of young men will have experienced violence at school

Young Men are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime.

Young men aged between 16 and 24 experienced four times the average
levels of violence (levels in 2009/10 were 13%)

This means 1 in 8 young men are victims of violence every year

5. Trouble With The Law

Young men who have been in trouble with the police are three times more likely to be suicidal (50% compare with 17 per cent of the non-suicidal young men (Samaritans)

Young offenders are 18 times more likely to commit suicide 

6. Lack of family support

Boys are more likely to end up in care and men who were in care are four times more likely to attempt suicide in adulthood 

Suicidal young men are 8 times more likely than non-suicidal counterparts to be living alone, in care or hostels or without a family structure (Katz et al, 1999). Irish

A homeless rough sleeper is 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person in the UK

Separated men are twice as likely to commit suicide as other men and 6 times more likely to commit suicide than separated women

7. Lack Of Education

Boys are four times more likely to be excluded from school and excluded boys are 19 times more likely to commit suicide

8. The Burden Of Peacekeeping

Men carry the majority of the burden of peacekeeping putting their lives at risk to serve in the armed forces. Young men leaving the armed forces at 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide.

9. Unemployment

Male unemployment and suicide increase during a recession

Men who are unemployed are two to three times more likely to commit suicide.

3 in 5 unemployed people are men

Men are nearly twice as likely to be long-term unemployed as women

One in seven men are thought to develop depression within six months of being made redundant (Kivimaki, 2007).

Young men are considerably more likely to be unemployed than young women 
62% of the total young unemployed cohort is male, and this proportion rises to 70% of long-term young unemployed people.


10. Lack of appropriate help services

Most reports into the barriers that men face to accessing help and support cite lack of appropriate services as a key barrier. When it comes to mental health, men are twice as likely as women to want help provided at a job centre or workplace. 

SOURCES:









Wednesday 16 January 2013

1 in 5 suicides are preventable

1 in 5 suicides are preventable. 

Evidence suggests that some suicides connected with mental health conditions may have been avoided. One study estimated 20% of suicides of people with current or recent mental health conditions may have been preventable,
suggesting some individuals’ needs are not being met.


SOURCE: EHRC How Fair Is Britain Report, referencing Allmark, P. et al. 2010. Chapter 6. Page 16.

Suicide Is Preventable According To Researchers

Mental Health NHS Trusts can take action to reduce suicide rates. 

in 2001 by the National Confidential Report Into Suicide and Homicide by People With Mental Illness made a series of recommendations to reduce suicide rates. 


By 2006, the suicide rate was 9.1 per 10,000 patient contacts in a year for authorities which had introduced at least seven of the 9 recommended measures. The rate was higher, 11 per 10,000, for those which had introduced six or fewer.


SOURCE: The Lancet

See Also: Measures reduced suicide rate (BBC)

Violence Against Men & Boys: Inequalities Of Male Victims of Domestic Violence

Male victims of domestic violence are:


  • Less likely to realise they are a victim
  • Less likely to tell anyone about the abuse
  • Less likely to tell the police
  • Less likely to get a conviction
  • Less likely to access local support services
SOURCE: Male Victims Of Violence Suffering In Silence - Report On Male Victims In Brighton & Hove 

Violence Against Men and Boys: Female Perpetrators of Domestic Violence

The number of women convicted of committing domestic violence rose 169% form around 1,500 a year to 4,000 a year between 2005 and 2010.

This means that while One In Three victims of domestic violence are male, only 7% of perpetrators convicted are female. 

The figures were obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service and published by the BBC an other media.

Violence Against Men and Boys: Violence Against Boys At School


Three quarters of boys are victims of violence at school and seven our of 10 will tell no-one.

According to the Taking Boys Seriously report by the Centre for Young Men’s Studies in Northern Ireland, around three quarters of boys experience violence in school (peaking at 84% in year 9) and many or most will not tell anyone about the incident (peaking at 69% in Year 11)

Prevalence of:
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Year 12
Violent acts committed against them
74.6%

84.4%

80.9%

74.9%
72.3%

Did not talk about violent incident
48.8%
46.9%

44.1%
68.9%
66.8%

SOURCE: TAKING BOYS SERIOUSLY - A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF
ADOLESCENT MALE SCHOOL-LIFE EXPERIENCES IN NORTHERN IRELAND by Dr Ken Harland and Sam McCready Centre for Young Men’s Studies

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Violence Against Men and Boys: Physical Abuse Against Boys By Parents


In total, 21% of children experience some degree of physical abuse at the hands of their parents or carers during childhood.

The person responsible for physical violence during childhood was most often the mother (49%) or father (40%)



Violence Against Men and Boys: Boys and Homicide


There are approximately 80-100 homicides of children aged between 0 and 16 years each year in the UK.

The homicides of boys outnumber that of girls in all age groups. Male infants also outnumber female infants among children placed on child protection registers for physical abuse.


Boys are more likely to be killed by their parents than girls.

Violence Against Men and Boys: Parental Violence

A review of callers to ChildLine about physical abuse of children 34% cite their mother as the source of physical abuse, with 29% citing their father, and 9% mentioning both parents.

Among girls calling ChildLine about physical abuse, 37% of girls say that their mother is the source of the physical abuse, 25% say their father is, with nine per cent mentioning both parents.

Among boys calling ChildLine about physical abuse, 27% of boys say that their mother is the source of the physical abuse, 38% say their father is, with nine per cent mentioning both parents.

Violence Against Men and Boys: 1 in 3 Victims of Domestic Violence are Male

One In Three victims of domestic violence are male 

According to the British Crime Survey one in three victims of domestic violence are men.


1 in 6 (16%) men (aged between 16 and 59) will suffer domestic abuse in their
lifetime. The figure for women is 1 in 4 (28%). This equates to a gender-victim ratio of: 36% male: 64% female

This means that 2.6 million will be a victim of domestic violence in their lifetime.

SOURCE: The ManKind Initiative: Male Victims - Domestic and Partner Abuse Statistics


Research spanning over 40 years has, however, consistently found that men and women self-report perpetrating domestic violence at similar rates. Professor John Archer from the University of Central Lancashire has conducted a number of meta-analytic reviews of research studies spanning 40 years and found that women are as likely to use domestic violence as men, but women are twice as likely as men to be injured or killed during a domestic assault. Men still represent a substantial proportion of people who are assaulted, injured or killed by an intimate partner (50%, 30% and 25% respectively).

SOURCE: The invisible domestic violence - against men, article in Guardian by Dr Nicola Graham-Kevan 

NB: The proportion of male victims of domestic violence varies depending on how it is measured and the intention of the person presenting the statistic - with claims ranging from less than 10% to more than half. 
Those seeking to present lower figures will use figures like the number of reports to police of the number of convictions which under-represent 

Another approach used is to estimate the number of "incidents" which doesn't measure how many individual incidents and doesn't reflect that domestic violence is usually a pattern of abusive an controlling behaviour that often includes emotional and psychological abuse such as constant criticism, belittling, threats to leave, threats to prevent men seeing their children. The male victims of this type of behaviour cannot be measured in individual incidents.


Suicide: Domestic Violence, Male Victims At Risk

Male victims of domestic violence are more s likely to try and commit suicide.

Male victims of domestic violence are 50% more likely to try and commit suicide according to the British Crime survey 2008/2009.

SOURCE: The ManKind Initiative: Male Victims - Domestic and Partner Abuse Statistics

Violence Against Men and Boys: Homicide Victims

71% of homicide victims are male.

In 2008-2009, of the 651 people who were murdered in England & Wales, 459 of them were men.

People are more likely to be killed by someone they know, this was the case for 230 male victim and 148 female victims, which means men account for 6 out 10 victims who are killed by someone  they know.

A further 170 men and 23 women who were killed by strangers, which means men are seven times more likely to be killed by a stranger and account for 90% of deaths in this category.

Men also account for 74% of homicides where there is no suspect.

Relationship To Suspect
Male Victims
Female Victims
% Male
Partner/ex-partner
32
102
24%
Other family member
37
29
56%
Acquaintance
161
17
90%
(Someone they know total)
(230)
(148)
(61%)
Stranger
170
23
88%
No Suspect
59
21
74%
Totals
459
192
71%


SOURCE: Home Office Statistical Bulletin Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2008/09