Study finds high rate of suicide among women in health sector

Programmes should be put in place to overcome the stigma of mental illness among health care professionals, a leading expert on suicide has said.

The comments from Prof Ella Arensman, of the National Suicide Research Foundation, come after a study found that more than a quarter of all women who took their own lives in Cork in a near four-year period worked in the health sector.

She said research carried out as part of its Suicide Support and Information System pilot study found 307 people took their own lives in Co Cork between September 2008 and June 2012.

Prof Arensman and her colleague Dr Sara Leitao found that men accounted for 80.1 per cent of these suicides. Among the remaining 19.9 per cent of women, it was found that 26.5 per cent worked in the health sector.

Prof Arensman said that although the figures relate just to Cork, the fact that it covers an urban and a rural area means it should be possible to extrapolate that similar patterns apply in other counties.

International data

The figures are “in line with a lot of international data” and reflect “the way health professionals view themselves – they are there to help others and are not always good at asking for help themselves,” she said.

“There is a huge stigma attached to asking for help within the health care sector and that needs to be removed in training and also by facilitating support in a confidential way because as long as the stigma exists, people will be reluctant to seek help if it is not confidential.”

Deteriorating

Prof Arensman said the research found that the person at risk was aware they were deteriorating but they felt they had to keep it from others. This highlighted the need for regular supervision and debriefing of staff often working in stressful situations, she said.

Among the men who took their own lives in Cork in the period, 48.6 per cent had worked in the construction or production sectors, where Prof Arensman said there was also a need for mental health programmes.

The pilot study also found that 65.2 per cent of those who took their own lives had a history of self harm, 69.1 per cent were diagnosed with depression and alcohol or drug abuse was found to be present among 60.7 per cent of people.