Experts urge suicide prevention system(2)

Experts believe that having children and relatives away from home, disease and poverty are the main causes of suicide among the elderly. As China becomes a graying society and an increasing number of left-behind older people emerge, elder suicide may become a severe social problem in the future.

Despite the problems of older people, China has seen its suicide rate drop significantly compared with the increasing global suicide rate, which has increased by 60 percentage points over the past 45 years.

Xiao said that the reasons for China's decrease include more opportunities for people in diverse fields. The country has also been striving to make efforts to prevent suicide.

One sign of progress is that the suicide rate among rural Chinese women has dropped dramatically. In the 1980s, family disputes, unhappy marriages, poverty and easy access to pesticides contributed to a suicide rate exceeding 30 in 100,000 among rural women. The rate fell to 7.87 in 100,000 in 2009. The drop in the suicide rate of rural women may be due to mass migration to urban areas, ridding women of undeveloped living conditions and helping them gain legal and social assistance.

"Even one case of suicide is too much for society. I strongly advise that China create a national strategy to prevent suicide as soon as possible like some other countries have done," Xiao said.

We need to enhance psychological health education among people, improve the current mental health service system, keep eradicating suicide, reduce discrimination of those who have attempted suicide, as well as create more mental crisis intervention organizations, Xia said.

Xia suggested that China learn from the experience of other countries to set up a suicide prevention network nationwide, and the government should organize professional teams and recruit more participants, including police, social workers and volunteers, to cope with the problem.