Chapter 7 - DO NOT PANIC! SUICIDE CASES AND PREVENTION
Farmers in the U.S.
Farmers in the U.S. have committed suicide 3.5 times more than any other group.
It is a sensitive group that has been highly challenged due to various factors. Some of them are isolation, loss of profit, indebtedness, bankruptcies, Johne's disease (affecting cattle), weather adversities, key commodity prices falling, Chinese tariff challenges, and trade tensions.
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The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting uncovered that more than 450 farmers killed themselves across nine Midwestern states from 2014 to 2018. Most of them were men in their 50s and 60s.
Data on National Suicide (CDC)
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States overall, and the second and fourth leading cause among persons aged 10-34 and 35-44 years, respectively. In just over two decades (1999-2019), approximately 800,000 deaths were attributed to suicide. There was a 33% increase in the suicide rate over the period.
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In 2019 a total of 12 million adults reported serious thoughts of suicide during the past year, 3.5 million planned suicide, and 1.4 million attempted suicides.
Suicides and suicide attempts in 2019 led to a lifetime combined medical and work-loss cost (i.e., the costs that accrue from the time of the injury through the course of a person's expected lifetime) of approximately 70 billion dollars.
Suicide rates in other parts of the world
Here are some shocking facts that they published in an article on December 4th, 2018, entitled, "100,000 attempt debt suicide each year: stop the debt threats."
• Over 420,000 people in problem debt considered taking their own life in England last year
• More than 100,000 people in debt attempt suicide each year
• People in problem debt are three times more likely to have considered suicide than people not in debt problem
Martin said that "The fact a law set decades ago doesn't just allow companies to use intimidating language when collecting debt, but near forces them to do so, causes tragedy. The last thing those struggling with debts need is a bunch of near-thuggish letters dropping through the letterbox in a language they cannot understand, threatening them with court action. And with such a tight link between mental health and debt crisis, we know many of the people receiving these letters are extremely vulnerable."
