Economic Crisis in the US Led to One Suicide every 15 Minutes

Added by on September 16, 2010

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has just issued the second alert with regard to the US population’s mental health crisis. NAMI alerted that suicide rates and ranks have reached high peaks, especially among unemployed citizens and veterans. The American Association of Suicidology (AAS) has reported its most recent statistics, from the year 2007, when nearly 35,000 Americans were committing suicide each year. The AAS statistics date back from three years ago, before the current economic crisis began.

Currently, under the Obama Administration the mental health crisis has reached one suicide committed at every 15 minutes, resulting in nearly 100 suicides per day. The alliance issued the second alert in order to remind reporters and editors to inquire candidates for the public office what they intend to do about the nation’s mental health crisis. According to NAMI, the state budget crisis lead to numerous cuts in the mental health services area which endangered lives.

Last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services has reported new numbers which show that three people die by suicide for every two people that are murdered, leading to the conclusion that there’s one suicide every 15 minutes. Numbers also concluded that more than 8m Americans seriously consider committing suicide each year, more than 2m actually make plans to commit suicide and that more than 1m have already attempted to take their own life.