'Little surprise' when it comes to suicide rates

40 PER CENT HIGHER THAN LONDON IN THE NORTH EAST

- By SAM VOLPE Health reporter [e-mail]

IT is “little surprise” that suicide risk in the North East is an astonishing 40% higher than in London according to a local charity boss. New research published in the Lancet and based on data from 2022, has seen a team at Imperial College London highlight how factors such as deprivation and declining industry have a serious impact.

The data shows that while in 2002, suicide risk in the North East was 10.03% higher than on average, two decades later this gap had more than doubled to 23.16%. As previously reported by ChronicleLive, the issue has been a pervasive one in the region for many years.

James Fildes, founder and managing director at Space North East and chair of Washington Mind said: "It's of little surprise to us the lack of substantial improvement in suicide rates across the nation, and more specifically with regard to any improvement in the North East.

"The data presented in this study strengthens long-held, but typically anecdotal, beliefs around geographical and societal patterns of suicidality. For example there is significant data indicating that the North East of England typically experiences the highest rates of suicide nationally, however the further extrapolation of that inquiry to include area-level risk factors is a welcome piece to an increasingly complex puzzle.

"Growing up in the North East, in the once impressive, now de-industrialised city of Sunderland, it was clear to see the impact of that de industrialisation since the closure of the mines and shipyards, with the final nail in the coffin coming in 1988.