He Ministry of Health presented the Suicide Prevention Plana strategy that will address the causes that trigger it and that will benefit from specific funding to implement measures that can prevent the approximately 4,000 deaths that occur annually in Spain for this reason.
The Minister of Health, Monique Garcia; the Mental Health Commissioner, Belen Gonzalezand the Secretary of State for Justice, Manuel Olmedoappeared jointly to detail this plan and offer the latest data on 024 and suicides occurring in 2023. “The best prevention of suicide is to ensure that life is worth living,” says García.
According to provisional data from the INE published last June, last year 3,952 people they committed suicide, 6.5% less than a year ago; Suicides have thus decreased for the first time in five years and have become the second leading cause of external death after replacing accidental falls a year earlier. Olmedo thus deplored the persistence of the “taboo” of suicide: “What we do not talk about does not exist.”
The creation of a specific plan against suicide was a historic demand of civil society that was ultimately not included in the mental health strategy approved by the Government at the end of 2021.It is a plan under construction“very ambitious,” said the Commissioner, stressing that it will be led by Health in coordination with the Autonomous Communities.
Since the beginning of her mandate, the minister has already committed to meeting this historic demand and, at the beginning of the year, put forward the creation of a plan to deal with a phenomenon that, although the figures are “relatively low”, requires “a in-depth analysis factors that can lead a person to despair and the decision to stop living.
The plan, which will receive funding from the Ministry of Health and is awaiting allocation, will focus on the social determinants address suicidal behaviors in order to understand the causes, economic factors to social and gender factorsand thus be able to design effective measures. According to González, they hope that the plan will be approved throughout 2025.
It is composed of eight main areas with their respective lines of action: development of an observation observatory; information, awareness-raising and combating stigmatization; prevention of the vulnerability of groups such as minors and the elderly, as well as in rural areas; collaboration with other ministries; prevention in the health context; collaboration with autonomous communities; and training of health workers and agents.
It will also include actions aimed at improving Telephone warning of suicide risk 024created in 2022, and will launch expert panels on suicide, including health and academic specialists, survivors, and representatives from the police and fire service. This will be supplemented by another specific one on suicidal behaviors among young people and adolescents.
González highlighted the activity of 024, which has answered 300,000 calls since its creation, remaining stable at 12,000 calls per month, serving people whose average age is between 40 and 70 years old. In addition, the online chat has served more than 10,000 people, aged 20 to 29.
