Youth suicide increased by 15% in 2021 in the Netherlands, out of a total of around 1,800 suicides per year, all age groups combined. Each month, more than 20 people under the age of 30 end their lives on average, with peaks of more than 30 deaths per month during the confinement period (in January, February and December 2021). This disturbing phenomenon, more than 300 suicides of young people per year, mainly concerns men aged 20 to 30.
Lift the taboo and free speech
“It is an indicator of wider social suffering, with a lack of social contact making young people more vulnerable” according to Renske Gilissen, president of the Dutch Center for Suicide Registration (CANS). This expert, like others across Europe, is delighted with the spectacular speech of the Belgian singer Stromae on the television news of TF1, with his song Hell, which evokes suicidal thoughts. “It’s the best prevention spot ever. It helps to lift the taboo and free speech. There is still a lot of shame on this subject. »
The Association of Dutch Psychiatrists, for its part, warns of the doubling in 2020 of consultations, compared to 2019. If the weight of the pandemic remains to be measured precisely, Renske Gilissen estimates that “ contact with peers, plans for the future, discovery of the world and friendships are very important during this phase of life, and many health measures have a direct influence in all these areas ».
In 2020, 19,000 calls to the prevention line in Belgium
In Belgium, where suicide is the second cause of death among 15-44 year olds after road accidents, 1,800 people also take their own lives each year (509 women and 1,283 men in 2018). Youth suicide, down over the past decade, stood at 5.55 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 among 15-19 year olds, compared to a national average rate of 18.3 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019. higher than the European average (11 per 100,000 inhabitants). Figures for 2020 and 2021 are not yet available, but as always they are likely to be underestimated, with families not always keen to record deaths as suicides.
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Anyway, in Brussels, the Suicide Prevention Center (CPS) reports 19,000 calls in 2020, up 24%. The trend was confirmed in 2021 with 20% more calls. As for the requests for consultations because of a suicidal crisis, they have doubled. ” Lhe age group of 14-30 years is strongly represented in 2020, whereas it was not before, explains Déborah Deseck, spokesperson for the CPS. The anxiety-provoking context is an amplifier of anxiety. Adults are also affected by the crisis and the increasing risks, financial and social. They don’t talk about their suffering to the teenagers around them. Parents do not name the problem of suicidal thoughts either, for fear of provoking a passage to the act in their teenagers. As the crisis is now a long-term one, unexpressed suffering will intensify. »
Containment, the drop too many
Dominique Nothomb, president of the CPS, recalls like the Dutch experts that the causes of a suicide are always multiple, the health crisis sanitary coming the « amplifier ». Consultations for bereavement support for loved ones after a suicide jumped 31% in 2020, reports the Psychological Crisis Intervention Unit (CIPC).