If your looking for information regarding suicide and the effects of suicide please see below:

Suicide is a serious public health problem in the United States today.  On average, 85 Americans die from suicide daily. Today, it’s the eighth leading cause of death in the US and is responsible for approximately 31,000 deaths annually. As of 1996, there were 3 suicides for every 2 homicides committed in the US .   Every year, there are approximately 500,000 suicide survivors who visit emergency hospital rooms across the country, seeking medical help for unsuccessful attempts.

Suicide is highly likely in situations where an individual is going through a mental illness or substance abuse.  This individual will usually experience mental or physical suffering, causing him or her to contemplate suicide. After suicide, the suffering continues as relatives of the suicide victims go through trauma, social isolation and stigma.

Young adults and children are the first age group affected by suicide.  From 1980 to 1996, for the age group 15 to 19, the rate of suicide saw an increase of 14% in the US .  For the age group 10 to 14, this rate increased 100%.   What’s even more alarming is that for the age group 15 to 19, the use of firearms accounted for 96% of those suicides. In fact, in the US , every 8 hours a child or teen was killed in a fire-arm related accident or suicide in 1991. The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 to 24.

The second age group in which the suicide rate is high is that of our senior citizens.  This is especially true for white American males aged 65 years and older. The highest suicide rates were for white men over 85, who had a rate of 65.3 suicides per 100,000.  Seniors become most prone to suicide because of loneliness, physical illness or disabilities. Most of the time, shortly before committing suicide, seniors are most likely to have visited a health care professional. This is critical because it often represents a missed opportunity for our health care providers to identify individuals who are showing symptoms of suicide. It is a lost opportunity for them to intervene and possibly prevent the individual from committing the act.

Trauma and stigma are the biggest problems that families of suicide victims and survivors face after a suicide attempt. Often, we are conditioned to blame the suicide victims for the cause of the suicide, stigmatizing members of the victim’s family.  Family members unintentionally find themselves socially isolated because of this. Thus, healing often does not come for these individuals as the hurt intensifies. More importantly, this discourages them from seeking professional help.

As a society, we need to immediately change the backward approach that some of us take in dealing with suicide. Rather than use scapegoats or put blame on the victims, we should give support and compassion to the families of these victims. Instead of isolating them, we should offer companionship.  We need to focus on prevention and intervention so that family members are able to cope with the inevitable trauma and sadness of suicide.