Hansard

Dr Sir Thomas Browne created the word “suicide” meaning “to kill oneself” in the 17th century, but it has always been with us.

The early Christian church exalted self-sacrifice and martyrdom, yet by the middle ages the church would dissuade people from committing suicide by preaching damnation, and people who had committed suicide were often denied a Christian burial, hung in chains, impaled on a stake or disembowelled. Thankfully, the modern faith and secular worlds are much more enlightened in their approach to suicide.

My own family has suffered from suicide. My great-grandmother drowned herself in the River Shannon, and an uncle burned himself to death in his car. A cousin in the 1960s often came home from school to find his mother attempting self-destruction by putting her head in the oven or standing on the window ledge; at 10, he found her strangled by the washing line. In this debate, therefore, I will focus not on the wish to die of the terminally ill or of those who are in permanent pain without quality of life, which I believe will be debated another day, but on the suicide of despair by people who see little hope in their own life now or ever.

Suicide can destroy the future because of a failed exam, a broken relationship or a loss of home or job that someone cannot see past but which the passage of time would surely have resolved. Studies show that the children of suicides are more likely to kill themselves, as are members of the immediate family and close friends, inflicting, as some have argued, a posthumous homicide. In the past 45 years, there has been a 60 per cent increase in the incidence of suicide worldwide. As Neil Findlay pointed out, between 800,000 and 1 million people kill themselves in the world every year now; every one of them is, of course, a tragedy.

Scotland has not been immune from the global trend, as we have heard in the debate. The latest study from the Prince’s Trust revealed that a third of young unemployed people had considered suicide and that 9 per cent felt that they have nothing to live for. Furthermore, the rate of suicide is three times higher in the most deprived populations of Scotland than in the general population. The decline in living standards is therefore something that must be considered as we look at the matter and attempt to establish a strategy towards preventing suicide.

We have heard in the debate of suicide’s devastating impact on families and communities and of efforts to tackle the issue, but it is important to remember that specific groups in society are more at risk of suicide, and it is wise to focus on assisting those groups where possible. Of course, not all groups who suffer from suicide are deprived. As Nanette Milne said, there is a higher instance of suicide among farmers; there is also a higher rate among doctors, nurses and veterinarians. One might consider that access to the means of suicide is another reason for it.

Veterans of the armed forces form another group whose rate of suicide is higher than that of the wider population, for reasons that include difficulty in adapting to life outside the forces, living with the trauma of conflict or suffering from mental and physical problems related to time in service. I am therefore pleased that Scotland is the first nation in the UK to appoint a veterans commissioner to work with charities, local authorities and health boards to identify public services that might provide greater support to veterans. That commitment will complement the £1.4 million annual funding from the Scottish Government for specialist mental health and community outreach services provided by Combat Stress to help veterans who need support.

As deputy convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I know that people with a history of childhood sexual abuse have a greater likelihood of suicide. The “Beyond Trauma” study by Dr Sarah Nelson of the University of Edinburgh focused specifically on the mental health needs of female survivors, half of whom revealed that they had tried, sometimes repeatedly, to kill themselves. In an NHS Lothian needs assessment of adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse, it was found that male suicidal behaviour was even more acute than that in female survivors, with most male survivors having attempted suicide—again, often on several occasions. Very often, survivors of childhood sexual abuse not only have to live with their experiences but they struggle with addictions that are developed as a result of them. As is pointed out in the suicide prevention strategy, substance abuse often increases the likelihood of an individual attempting to take their life, making that group, too, particularly vulnerable.

Often, the best way for survivors to rebuild their lives is to discuss their experiences, understand what happened to them, know that they are not alone and rediscover their self-esteem and trust in others. Organisations across the country support survivors of childhood sexual abuse and carry out vital work to help those who are most in need tackle their problems as a result of trauma. I am pleased that Survivor Scotland was allocated £1.65 million from the Scottish Government between 2012 and 2014 to fund a variety of projects to continue that invaluable work, as individuals who are at risk of suicidal behaviour require continued support to ensure that they do not end their lives.

A couple of years ago, I chaired a Samaritans and University of Edinburgh seminar here in the Parliament on the media impact of suicide. The National Union of Journalists attended the seminar and it must be commended for its serious approach to suicide prevention, encouraging as it does journalists to report suicide sensitively, as sensationalist coverage or reporting that appears to glorify or romanticise suicide can lead to many more copycat suicides.

Although suicide clusters thankfully remain rare, they can have a devastating impact on local areas. To see that, we need only cast our minds back a few years to the tragic events in Bridgend in south Wales, where dozens of teenagers and young adults committed suicide in the space of a few short years. At the time, many people blamed sensational and excessive media coverage of those tragedies for the increased number of suicides. In 2010, the police asked the media to cease reporting on them in an effort to deter copycats, and eventually the trend subsided. The continued dialogue between the NUJ and the Scottish Government is welcome, as are efforts to ensure that there is sensitive reporting on mental health issues and suicide through the publication of practical guidelines and journalist training.