Understanding Suicide
Research shows different issues such as gender, age, sexual orientation, social deprivation, ethnic group and experience of sexual and interpersonal violence can be associated with a risk of suicide. Such issues are often present when churches are offering pastoral support to individuals.
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Research by Queen’s University Belfast found that the conflict in Northern Ireland had a profound effect on our suicide rates. The steep increase in recent years may be accounted for by those who grew up in the 1970s during the worst years of the violence. The highest risk group for suicide in Northern Ireland is men aged from 25 to 54 who live in socially deprived areas.
However, suicide touches everyone — all ages and classes and all ethnic and religious groups.
It can happen to anybody.
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But every suicide is different and the circumstances leading up to it are unique to the individual.
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Common underlying factors of intense psychological pain and extreme hopelessness may lead to suicidal thinking and without strong social supports and with high risk factors such as drug/alcohol misuse a person may take their own life.
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There are many common misunderstandings about suicide. Click the link below for a table that separates the myths from the facts.