Centre for Policy on Ageing



Elderly suicide in Finland
Author(s)	Kristiina Pitkälä, Erkki T Isometsä, Markus M Henriksson
Journal title	International Psychogeriatrics, vol 12, no 2, June 2000
Pages	pp 209-220
Keywords	Suicide ; Death rate [statistics] ; Finland.
Annotation	Suicide mortality among older people is high in most Western countries. The characteristics of suicide victims were investigated in the research phase of the National Suicide Prevention Project in Finland. The study population included all suicides over a 12-month period in 1987-1988. Of 1,397, 211 were aged 65 and over. Older suicide victims were found to have used violent methods more often than the young. Although almost 70% of older people who had committed suicide had been in contact with health care services during the month before death, their suicide intentions were rarely communicated in these contacts. They had been referred to psychiatric services less often than the young, and only 8% had received adequate antidepressive medication. That most had contact with health care services during their final month suggests that suicide could have been prevented. However, the major obstacle to this is poor recognition of mental disorders and suicidal ideation among older people. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001109215 A
Classmark	EV: S5: 76L
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.