In the UK the male suicide rate is three times higher than the female suicide rate, yet successive governments have done next to nothing in an effort to reduce it. Many government policy directions contribute directly or indirectly to the high male suicide rate e.g. fathers’ denial of access to children following relationship breakdowns, lack of support for homeless men, lack of support for male victims of domestic abuse, favouring the employment of women over men in the public sector… and much more besides. As many British men are killing themselves as there were 50 years ago, while the female suicide rate has steadily fallen over the same period.
We’re very interested in hearing about initiatives to reduce the male suicide rate, so I was pleased to learn a male suicide reduction summit is to be held on Friday. My thanks to Claire-Louise Meadows for giving exposure to this event: