There were another 11 cases in 2014 where an inquest found the cause of death as undetermined but which might have been a suicide. It adds up to 193 potential child suicides in a decade.
The figures show a slight fall in the overall number of suicides in 2014 – down two per cent to 6,122. The previous year’s figure was the highest of the new century.
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But, although men – especially older middle aged men – are still much more likely to take their own lives than women, the female suicide figure rose by eight per cent while the male total was down almost five per cent.
Overall 3,926 men and 1,232 women died as a result of suicide in 2014.
The reduction in male suicides – down by 233 in a year – follows a high-profile drive by groups like the Samaritans to raise awareness of the problem and break down taboos about seeking help.
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But Ruth Sutherland, the charity’s chief executive, said the continued rise among women was of “great concern”.
The ONS said children under 15 had previously been excluded from the total because of the small numbers involved.
“However, after discussions with Public Health England and the constituent countries of the UK, it was decided that it was appropriate to include them,” statisticians explained in a commentary to the new figures.
Ged Flynn, chief executive of Papyrus, a charity dedicated to preventing suicide among younger people, said: “We have ‘hidden’ the fact that children and young people die this way because it is so painful for us.
“It is painful and toxic to think about it, so we hide it and hope it goes away.
“Today we can see it is not going away.
“It is a national scandal and we have to talk about it.”
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Ruth Sutherland said: “Samaritans’ goal is that fewer people die by suicide and these figures help us to be more targeted in our work and reinforce the need for all agencies, the police, prisons, schools and NHS to work together to reduce death by suicide.
“Today’s figures do show a slight decrease in male suicide across the UK, however they are still the most high risk group and are three times more likely to die by suicide than women.
“More specifically, men aged 45-59, are still the group with the highest suicide rate.
“These statistics show that Samaritans work is vital.
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“Suicide is a society wide issue. Samaritans is always there for anyone struggling to cope, whatever they’re going through.
“Moving forward we would like to see more real-time reporting of suicide deaths. Such information would allow us, and others, to react in a timely manner to emerging trends in suicide and identify high risk groups quickly and respond to these trends as they happen to allow us to take action earlier, and change lives.”
Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/579309/s/4d5c0fc5/sc/14/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cpolitics0C12140A480A0C10A0A0Efamilies0Ehit0Eby0Echild0Esuicide0Ein0Ea0Edecade0Bhtml/story01.htm
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