Suicide rate increases among women and the elderly during Covid pandemic

In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, suicide rates in Brazil were high among women (7%) and the elderly (9%), but remained stable in the general population. There was also a wide variation in deaths between regions of the country.

The conclusion is a study by UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (RS) and Unisinos. It was published in the Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, which compared data on DataSUS suicides recorded in 2020 (11,334 in total) with the average of the previous ten years.

Regarding the suicide of women, the North and Southeast regions had the highest increases, with 26% and 23%, respectively. In absolute numbers, male deaths are almost four times higher than those of women (8,881 against 2,470 in 2020)

Among people over 60 years old, the North also accounted for the highest increase (53%). Among young people up to 19 years old, there was greater growth in the Midwest (33%), followed by the North (30%) and Southeast (29%). The North also led the rise in the suicide rate among whites (30%). And the South region was at the top among non-whites (30%).

According to psychologist Felipe Ornell, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the Center for Research on Alcohol and Drugs at HC de Porto Alegre, it is necessary that suicide prevention campaigns and policies look at these particularities. “We cannot deal with suicide in a generic or individualized way. We need specific policies for specific groups.”

He raises some hypotheses to explain the increase in rates among the most vulnerable groups during the pandemic. Women, for example, in addition to facing the overload of domestic work combined with the home office, also had to help teach their children, who, with schools closed, began to study at home.

“Women also suffered more domestic violence. Many husbands were undergoing treatment [por algum distúrbio psiquiátrico] and, with the health services closed, they decompensated.”

Studies indicate that one in four women has suffered some form of violence in the first 12 months of a pandemic. General services assistant Cristina, 54, is one of them. She had already been assaulted by her husband before the pandemic, but during the health crisis, things got worse because he, unemployed, started drinking daily.

Currently, she is accompanied by a psychologist and psychiatrist at a CAPS (psychosocial support center) in the east side of São Paulo.

In the case of the high death rate among the elderly, Ornell suspects that, as they are one of the most vulnerable groups to the coronavirus, they had an even more restricted social isolation.

For the psychologist, it is not clear why the North region has registered the greatest increase in the suicide rate in general. “Why the North? Is it because it was the epicenter of the crisis [sanitária] in Brazil, with people dying from lack of oxygen? the mourning? The loss of income?”

According to him, a lot of attention is needed with this current period, in which the worst of the health crisis seems to have passed, but people are still living the consequences of it.

“The suffering of a psychiatric disorder is immediate, but the treatment is not like a surgery, which as soon as it resolves. It takes years of treatment”, says the psychologist, who points out that there may be an increase in suicide rates in the general population in next years.

The researcher also recalls that Brazil has one of the highest rates of mental disorders in the world and one of the possible causes is the insufficiency of services and professionals to attend to the public health system.

“On the issue of suicide, prevention is needed at school, in social assistance networks. It is necessary to break this outdated idea that mental health can only be solved with medication. It is necessary to identify signs that the person is at risk.”

In addition, explains Ornell, there is a strong cultural heritage of internment of the mentally ill in asylums, which makes people avoid admitting that they are suffering mental problems, for fear of being labeled as crazy.

“That’s why it’s important to promote mental health education, encouraging people to talk about the problem.” It is also essential to democratize access to mental health services, qualifying public units in the area.

The researcher is the author of a booklet in which he describes how to understand, identify and intervene in the signs of suicide. The material is available on the website of the OAB (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil) of Rio Grande do Sul.

WHERE TO FIND HELP?

• Look for the UBS (Basic Health Unit) or the Caps (Psychosocial Care Center) closest to your home
• In case of an emergency, contact Samu (Mobile Emergency Service) by calling 192
• Talk to a volunteer from the CVV (Centro de Valorização da Vida) by calling 188 (free call from any landline or cell phone nationwide) or visit www.cvv.org.br