Providing Meaningful Care: using the experiences of young suicidal men to inform mental health care services

Suicide is the act of deliberately ending one's own life and is among the top 20 leading causes of death gloablly for all ages. Every year, almost one million people die by suicide. This translates to a 'global' mortality rate of 16 per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds. Before 1950, suicide was more common is people over 45 years of age. In the latter half of the 20th Century, this pattern changed significantly, so that the majority of suicides were within the 15-45 age range. One of the most important factors underpinning this shift in age related trends was the epidemic rise in suicide amongst young men in industrialised nations. And while the most recent epidemiological data from certain parts of the world perhaps indicate an encouraging decline in suicide rates in this age group, notable excpetions exist. For instance, the well-documented rise in suicide in Northern Ireland in general, as well as in relation to young men, is a disturbing trend.