The Ministry of Health is finalizing the first action plan for suicide prevention in Spain. The strategy, which has been demanded for years by experts and associations of survivors and relatives, comes at a time of “trend change” in the rate of people who end their lives. Last year, for the first time since 2018, the number of suicides decreased slightly.
3,952 people died for this reason in 2023, 6.5% less than the previous year, stressed Minister Mónica García at a press conference where the main points of the plan for the period 2025 to 2027 were presented, the first of which will be the draft presented next week to the Institutional Committee of the Mental Health Strategy and, later, to the autonomous communities within the Interterritorial Health Council.
The figures, which “continue to be terrible,” García said, were already published by the National Institute of Statistics a few months ago. However, the authorities have provided new data that reveal the difficulty of accessing the system for people who are going through a critical moment. Only 23% of people who committed suicide in 2023 were treated by a mental health specialist, said the Secretary of State for Justice, Manuel Olmos, who also participated in the appearance. In the case of people who attempted suicide, the percentage is reduced to 19%.
The CIS Health Barometer questioned for the first time this summer the attention paid to mental health problems and put the figures at the limit in terms of public health. Only 14% of patients who initially contact the National Health System get an appointment with a specialist (psychologist or psychiatrist) in less than 30 days and 21% have to wait between one and three months.
People who attempt suicide and fail remain a blind spot for the authorities, although the team led by Carolina Darias proposed in 2022 to also count attempts. Health recalled that there is a “marked gender disparity” in suicide: the rate is three times higher among men than among women. However, García stressed, they register more suicide attempts.
From 2018 to 2022, primary care detected more than double the number of self-harm attempts during consultations, according to figures from a large health database containing 10 million medical records and shared by the mental health commissioner, Belén Gonzalez. Self-harm attempts, Health specifies, include all forms of “harming oneself.” For example, self-harm that does not seek to end life.
Among the figures that allow us to outline the problem of suicide are also those of the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (INTCF), which receives consultations on poisoning. Of the 5,000 that there were in 2023, according to Justice, 82.6% were caused by the ingestion of drugs related to the nervous system, such as psychotropic drugs. In addition, benzodiazepines are present in the blood of almost half of the people who committed suicide, even if they are not the cause of death, followed by antidepressants.
“This is due to the ease of access to this type of compound,” Olmedo stressed, in a criticism shared by Health, which is preparing a plan to deprescribe these drugs. Spain is leading consumption in Europe. “Well prescribed, they can help, but inappropriate use can generate public health problems,” the commissioner added.
Health intervention is only one part
The Action Plan against suicide, in the absence of negotiations with the autonomous communities, will focus on “prevention as a response”, but always “coordinated to address the social and economic factors that exacerbate suffering”, summarized the Minister of Health.
The document includes six objectives and 40 lines of action, including the development of information systems with the creation of a prevention observatory and a working group made up of experts from various ministries and agencies (such as the INE or the ISCIII) to analyze the data and “better understand the situation.” Special attention will also be paid to awareness-raising and combating stigma, González said, and a group of media experts will draft a document on how to report on this problem.
The plan focuses primarily on minors and the elderly as they are “particularly vulnerable” groups. “The highest suicide rates occur among people over 80 and the increase is 94.5% among those over 94. We are particularly concerned about rural and isolated areas and we will take initiatives to alleviate unwanted loneliness,” he explained. Trans people are also on the ministry’s radar as a population requiring priority attention due to their higher suicide rates. The plan will prioritize “psychological autopsies” in cases of suicide or suspicion.
In the health context, which is only part of the plan, the Ministry aims to improve emergency care in cases of suicide risk and to promote support for caregivers and survivors. All of this will have to be implemented in coordination with the autonomous communities, which have transferred health responsibilities in Spain.
The plan, announced Health, will have a budget and will seek to coordinate with Justice but also with the State Security Forces and Corps and, as a novelty, with community resources to which people who come have already begun to be directed to the 024. The ministry seeks to “promote community interventions in neighborhoods and municipalities for the development of initiatives that promote links with the territory and its environment” to prevent suicide and “establish coordination mechanisms with social services and resources” in the face of behavior of this type. “It is difficult for someone to go to primary care saying they have financial problems; they will say they suffer from anguish, anxiety or depression. We must see the social substrate that supports suffering and prevention must be at all levels,” concluded García.
