Suicide reduction in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons informing national prevention strategies for suicide reduction

CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that for the first post-pandemic interval evaluated (i.e., March 2020 - February 2021), suicide rates in Canada decreased against a background of extraordinary public health measures intended to mitigate community spread of COVID-19. An externality of public health measures was a significant rise in national unemployment rates in population measures of distress. Our results suggest that government interventions that broadly aim to reduce measures of insecurity (i.e., economic, housing, health), and timely psychiatric services, should be prioritised as part of a national suicide reduction strategy, not only during but after termination of the COVID-19 pandemic.PMID:34551280 | DOI:10.1177/01410768211043186

Source: J R Soc Med AND (has... - September 22, 2021 Category: General Medicine Authors: Roger S McIntyre Leanna Mw Lui Joshua D Rosenblat Roger Ho Hartej Gill Rodrigo B Mansur Kayla Teopiz Yuhua Liao Ciyong Lu Mehala Subramaniapillai Flora Nasri Yena Lee Source Type: research