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Edinburgh (pte047/18.04.2005/17:45) - There is not enough being done to prevent suicide among older people in Scotland, according to a leading charity. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, a study carried out by Help The Aged Scotland and the Royal College of Nursing has suggested that older people are not receiving sufficient support. According to Liz Duncan, of Help The Aged Scotland, the Scottish Executive's Choose Life strategy is poorly targeted. Men aged 55 or over are twice as likely to commit suicide as women of the same age, the research found. It also found that people over the age of 55 are 10 times more likely to take their own lives than be killed in an assault.
According to Duncan, the findings are a cause for concern and the executive's strategy to avoid suicides has missed an important age group. "It is accepted in health and academic circles that depression is one of the most common conditions associated with suicide in older adults," she said. "Depression is also a widely under-recognised and under-treated medical illness. The executive's Choose Life strategy is a national action plan launched in 2003 aimed at preventing suicide in Scotland. However, Help the Aged believes it is flawed, in that older people were not named as one of the seven priority groups." According to Duncan, this is a "considerable oversight", given that there were 117 suicides by people aged over 55 in 2003.
"The fact that an older person commits suicide every three days in Scotland is a national tragedy that has to be addressed," said James Kennedy, a director for RSN Scotland, which is working together with Help the Aged to try and urge MSPs to sign a motion submitted by Donald Gorrie MSP, which calls for improvement in the care system to recognising depression in older people and treating it more quickly. "The issue of mental health and particularly depression in older people is all too readily swept under the carpet. It needs to be brought into the public eye and tackled."
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