So as you heard, more men are killing themselves than women but why? And is there a difference with how men and women commit suicide? Nurse Bennett elaborated on this complex issue.
Eleanor Bennett, Nursing Administrator, Mental Health
"From what we observe with suicide behavior is that when a man attempts to kill himself he would usually use very lethal means and a lethal means that he would use a mean that would prevent him from getting assistance. So that would mean he would try to hang himself, he would try to use a gun, he would try to jump off a bridge - something that might sure to cause his death. But we also notice that when women attempt suicide, they would do so by less lethal means which means that there is a window to get them help and that might be by drinking poison which is an issue for us, drinking over the counter medication and overdosing on other substances and so that creates that statistic that we have less men attempting, but more men dying and more women attempting and less women dying."
"Suicide is very complicated and it's really hard for us to pinpoint any one factor that would contribute to a person's death. But we do know that when it comes to men we have to look at issues like alcoholism. We have to look at issues like how they seek help, because women might seek help for their depression. We are talkers, we might go and talk, but a depress man would not want to seek the help that he needs."
The conference continues tomorrow.
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