Insight: Hong Kong's hidden suicide survivors
Do suicides increase during the holidays? In spite of the popular belief in the holiday "blues", statistics show that suicide numbers actually fall during the Christmas period. Perhaps the celebrations and the rituals keep people from slipping deeper into depression. But suicide rates often go up after a holiday.
Suicide can be the result of stress or a traumatic life event. But it is more often due to a mental health problem. Some research suggests that, in 90 per cent of suicides, there is an underlying issue of mental health, most often depression.
Hong Kong's suicide rate of 14.6 per 100,000 is in the highest 25 per cent globally. But it is a long way behind South Korea's 31.2 per 100,000. The US has 12 suicides per 100,000. The rate has been falling here over the past few years.
But these are just numbers. Those left behind after a suicide suffer a special kind of grief. They may be a hidden group. Doctors and researchers have generally concentrated almost exclusively on people who have taken their own lives, or on prevention measures.
Suicide survivors (those bereaved by suicide) are isolated from one another. Little is known about their circumstances, and they may receive little help in coming to terms with their loss. Leading researchers in this field, like Keith Hawton at the University of Oxford, found that when survivors were able to talk about their grief, it helped lessen their feelings of guilt and made their acceptance of death easier.
When research in this field began more than 30 years ago, it became clear that the friends and relatives of suicide victims experience major problems. It has been suggested that for each suicide, at least six people may suffer from intense, perhaps traumatic, grief.
Many others are seriously affected. Suicide is a personal act, but it has a profound impact on society. As well as close family and friends, it can affect the doctor who was treating the deceased, the reporter sent to cover the inquest, the people who found the body, work colleagues, and friends. A Samaritan's survey in Britain found that as many as one in five people had someone close to them who committed suicide.