If you are male and poor you are 10 times more likely to take your own life
After Saturday’s International Men’s Day, Southport & District Samaritans are calling on everyone in the community to take their part in suicide prevention.



Men are three times more likely to take their own lives than women and poorer men living in the poorest areas are ten times more likely to kill themselves than affluent men. Reaching men in this group and tackling this inequality could have a huge impact on the number of people taking their own lives. Samaritans want this inequality to be tackled through local suicide prevention planning.

Christina, the Southport & District Samaritan director said; “If you’re poor and male you are the most vulnerable to suicide. We need to see community based, multi-agency, targeted interventions offering support and messages that work for those at the greatest risk, to reduce the numbers of people taking their own lives. This is urgent. We are losing too many of our men to suicide and every single death is a tragedy that can wreak devastation in families and communities.

The momentum for tackling suicide has built during 2016. Ruth Sutherland said: “Suicide has never been more part of the national conversation, but this isn’t enough. The sad truth is that we’re still not seeing deaths by suicide decreasing. We need to build on current momentum and make suicide prevention everybody’s business, in every community and stop people dying.”
This year International Men’s Day is highlighting the issue of male suicide. Samaritans is calling on every local area to have a plan in place to reduce suicide amongst men, and all the other groups of people vulnerable to suicide.
Samaritans’ latest campaign, Local Action Saves Lives is asking individuals to email their local politicians to find our whether they’re taking suicide prevention seriously. For more information and to see what’s going in your area, go to, www.samaritans.org/action

Thanks for that, Festive Cheer or what?