1,000 extra deaths and an additional 30-40,000 suicide attempts may have occurred after the economic downturn, according to research

Debt, austerity and unemployment have been cited as significant factors in the rising number of British men who have killed themselves since 2008, according to new research.

Academics from the universities of Bristol, Manchester and Oxford estimate that an 1,000 extra deaths from suicide and an additional 30-40,000 suicide attempts may have occurred from 2008-2010 following the economic downturn, reversing previous trends in Britain where suicide rates among men were falling.

Debt and the impact of austerity measures are likely to be other important contributors in this rise, according to research by the universities, which was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The analysis summarises findings from a wider £1.8m study aimed at preventing suicide and improving the care of those who self harm.

“In a recession, all sorts of things happen,” said David Gunnell, professor of epidemiology at the University of Bristol. “People lose their jobs, the government makes decisions about where to make cuts. There has been a series of changes over last three or four years, such as the bedroom tax, benefit changes. The austerity measures are ongoing, with the current debate around tax credits.Unemployment is not the whole story.”

Figures compiled by the mental health charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm) showed that 4,623 men of all ages took their own lives in Britain in 2014, the equivalent of more than 12 deaths a day and accounting for 76% of the total suicides in the UK that year.

The latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics, published in February, show that a significant reversal in previously falling male suicide rates in England since 2007, which has been linked to the recession, has continued. In 2013 the rate of male suicides was more than three times higher than the female rate, which has stayed relatively constant over the years and is consistently lower than those for men.

The NIHR study follows a series of warnings from politicians and mental health campaigners over struggling mental health services. In February, MP Madeleine Moon, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for suicide warned of a “ticking timebomb” of suicides because of a lack of funding and a failure to roll out a national prevention strategy.

It echoes previous research, which has linked elevated suicide rates with high unemployment, particularly in men. However it concludes that rises in unemployment “appear to account for less than half the increase in suicide deaths during recessions.”

As part of the study, Gunnell interviewed men in their 20s, 30s and 40s who had attempted suicide. He was struck, he said, by the “heart sink” the men reported following requests from authorities to apply for jobs they were unlikely to win, and hearing nothing back.



The report said: “Unemployed interviewees reported the negative impact on their mental health of job centre targets for the number of job applications they should make; often they received no response to these applications and this contributed to their stress and sense of low self-worth due to failure to find employment.”

Experts have suggested men, more likely to be the main earner in the family and thus more affected by the recession than women, may experience a greater degree of shame in the face of unemployment and are less likely to seek help. Suicide remains the UK’s biggest cause of death among men under 45.

Between 2008-2010, the researchers say, 878 more men ended their life than would have been expected had the downward trend continued; compared with an extra 123 women.

“It’s about learning lessons from the financial crisis,” said Gunnell, who is also a member of the National Suicide Advisory Group. “Some of the people who are most vulnerable to job cuts are getting into debt. It’s about how you help vulnerable people when you are putting policy responses to upcoming recession.”

Commenting on the NIHR study, Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity, said: “The growing evidence is that the risk of suicide elevates in a recession. The reason for this is the effect of job losses and the psychological effect of that, but the other factor hinted at here, which chimes with what we have heard, is the negative effect of back to work programmes over the last four years.”

Farmer said the higher suicide rates, along with other crucial indicators, such as the 10% increase in detentions under the mental health act in England, reported in October, were worrying and should be addressed in the upcoming spending review.

“This is the canary in the mine for mental health services” said Farmer. “If many people are taking their own lives and many more people are being sectioned, there’s a problem with the mental health of our country.”

“Neither the work capacity assessment nor the work programme is doing the job that the Department of Work and Pensions want them to do in driving people back to work,” he said.

“We have evidence that these processes are having a detrimental effect on people’s mental health.”

In September, a coroner warned that the suicide of Michael O’Sullivan, an Irish builder from Highgate, north London, was triggered by being found “fit for work” after a work capacity assessment, and recommended the Department of Work and Pensions take action to prevent further deaths. Previously, the loss or reduction of benefits have been cited as factors in the suicide of claimants by coroners.

Research published by Mind last year found people with mental illness were having their benefit cut more than those with other illnesses. It found 83% of those with mental health problems said their self-esteem had worsened and 76% said they felt less able to work as a result of DWP back-to-work schemes.

Jane Powell, who founded Calm, to raise awareness of male suicide, said prevention campaigns needed to be more focussed on men.

“Looking for help and seeking help is anathema to being a man,” said Powell. “They are embarrassed, they think they should be looking after other people. When women have a problem with their relationship or lose a job, they talk to other women and there’s no shame in doing so. We see ourselves as being stressed, rather than it being a mental health issue. Sharing problems allows perspective. No-one is going to say, ‘Oh, be a proper woman, shut up’

The NIHR report recommends that the government should provide “appropriate investment in active labour markets”, adequate benefits to the needy, suicide risk training for frontline staff in the NHS, social services and advice sector and that funding should be available to agencies in areas badly hit by the recession.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here.





‘I couldn’t make sense of how I was feeling’

David, 45, a father of two, was running his own marketing business in central London, when he suffered a breakdown in 2011. His business was on the verge of collapse and he became consumed with fear he would no longer be able to provide for his wife and family.

“I couldn’t fail and I mustn’t fail and when the circumstances are such that one feels one has failed, everything else fell around me. In my case it was economic. I couldn’t fix my financial problems and business problems,” he said. “I now know I was suffering from anxiety and depression, but then I couldn’t make sense of how I was feeling. I was terrified that I couldn’t provide for my wife and kids any more.”

Recalling the moment, on a train back home from work, when he made the decision to kill himself, David said: “It was like I was in a bell jar. I could hear myself breathing. I was exhausted and broken. I went from ‘I can’t kill myself because of my wife and kids’, to the point where the emotional pain and depression and anxiety took over. I read somewhere that suicide happened when the level of your emotional pain outweighs your ability to cope with it. I just wanted to end it. I decided my wife and kids would be better off without me.”

“Once my brain had made that decision, I began to plan how to do it. I planned to do it the next day. And as men, we are good at planning.”

His wife realised something was seriously wrong and took him immediately to hospital. The mental health crisis team arranged for a future visit, but told him it would be six weeks before he would get an appointment. His wife called their GP, who asked if they could afford to go private, for quicker results.

“Luckily I had private healthcare,” said David. “I understand that the crisis teams have people who are violent and a desperately sad middle aged man is not a priority.”

“I slowly rebuilt my life. You have to work hard and you have to be kind to yourself and you have to stop drinking and start exercising. Men need to give themselves permission to talk.”

‘There is an untold story of the recession, how it has crept across the door step under the door mat and into people’s heads. The recession is not just figures and banks and stock markets. It has torn though our mental health as men.”

Five years on, David says he barely recognises the man who was so close to death. “I don’t sit with my mates sobbing. But what I’ve found is how fantastic friendships are when you share a bit of vulnerability. There are men like me right now who don’t think it’s going to get better who think they are alone. But they are not. And it can get better.”

David is not his real name, it has been changed to protect his anonymity.

This article was amended on 12 November 2015 to fix a spelling error