A SCOTTTISH university has led the way in research that paints a “stark” picture of young people’s mental health.
The new research has found that one in nine young adults in Scotland has attempted suicide. Around 11% of those aged 18 to 34 say they have tried to end their lives, with 16% revealing they have self-harmed. Another 6% of the 3500 people interviewed said they had engaged in both behaviours.
The study, the first ever of its kind, was led by Glasgow University, with data drawn from the Scottish Wellbeing Study.
Professor Rory O’Connor, director of the university’s Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, called the figures “stark” and LibDem Alex Cole-Hamilton say they leave “real questions about why the necessary help wasn’t in place” for those affected.
Meanwhile, Toni Giugliano of the Mental Health Foundation Scotland called for greater prioritisation of specialist services, telling The National: “Unless we tackle the root causes of why self-harm and suicidal ideation are high amongst our young people, unfortunately we will continue to face a mental health storm.”
According to researchers – including experts from Stirling, Leeds and Nottingham universities – the paper, which is published in the BJPsych Open journal, is the “first nationally representative population-based prevalence study of suicide attempts and NSSH [non-suicidal self-harm] in young adults ever conducted in the UK”.
The team stated: “We targeted the 18 to 34-year-old age group because although suicide attempts and NSSH seem to be common among young adults, we know relatively little about their prevalence in this age group.”
For those who engaged in the behaviours, they found the initial episode of self-harm tended to precede the first suicide attempt by about two years, with women much more likely to report both actions than men.
O’Connor commented: “Suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-harm are major public health concerns that affect large numbers of young people. Until now, there have been few studies that estimated how common these thoughts and behaviours were in young adults in the country. These results are stark, and serve to highlight the scale of suicide attempts and self-harm in our country’s young people.
“The findings are timely given that the Scottish Government will soon publish a new suicide prevention action plan. We hope our findings also emphasise the importance to clinicians, and others involved in the care of young people, to be vigilant given that suicide attempts and self-harm are relatively common.”
Guigliano said the work also signalled the need for vigilance by families, friends and employers, stating: “We all have a responsibility to look out for people in distress.
“We need to encourage them to open up and talk, provide a sympathetic response and listen.”
The Scottish Government said: “Scotland has seen a significant fall of 17 per cent in the overall suicide rate over the past decade.
“Among 15 to 34-year-olds, there has a been a decrease of 34%. We are currently engaging with stakeholders on a draft suicide prevention action plan in order to continue this strong downward trend.”
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