By Sentari Minor, Head of Strategy, evolvedMD
With so many high-profile suicides over the last decade, unfortunately, we know how suicide can impact anyone and everyone. No one is immune with even the world’s most successful, renowned, and celebrated gone too soon.
With nearly 1 In 5 American adults having a diagnosable mental health condition in a given year and 41% of all U.S. adults experiencing at least one adverse mental or behavioral health symptom during the pandemic[1], it isn’t shocking that death by suicide is the 12th leading cause of death according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month – a time to remember those we have lost while also bringing mental health to the forefront, reducing stigma, normalizing care, and hopefully saving lives.
Understanding Suicide: National Prevalence + Impact
The most recent statistics from the American Foundation on Suicide Prevention show how far-reaching and harrowing suicide is on Americans:
- 2nd leading cause of death for ages 20-34
- 4th leading cause of death for ages 35-44
- Over one third of people who died by suicide were 55 or older
- 10% of adult Americans have thought about suicide
- 2 million Americans attempted suicide
These numbers represent our friends, our family members, our colleagues, our teammates, and leaders in our communities.
From a business standpoint, suicide is immensely disruptive with the CDC noting, “The economic toll of suicide on society is immense. Suicides and suicide attempts cost the nation almost $70 billion per year in lifetime medical and work-loss costs alone.”
Leaders + Suicide: How the Most Successful Suffer
The data above shows that suicidal ideation and death by suicide is more pervasive than most of us would like to know or admit. Adding to this, Forbes chronicled how leaders, business professionals, and entrepreneurs can be particularly prone to suicidal ideation in Entrepreneurs And Suicide Risk: A New Perspective On Entrapment Provides Hope (forbes.com). This piece highlights the unique attributes that make them at risk and at evolvedMD we discuss how high-performing individuals put additional pressure on themselves which can exacerbate burnout, isolation, and other adverse symptoms.
What Companies Can Do
evolvedMD has spent the better part of 2022 road showing and refining our presentation to business leaders on The Business Case for Focusing on Employee Mental Health. From our standpoint, simply inviting challenging conversations and normalizing addressing mental health can be a great first step. Fostering psychological safety in the workplace, creating community to combat isolation, curating resources, and increasing access to services through EAPs are also highly impactful in prevention. In a groundbreaking article from the Harvard Business Review, What Employers Need to Know About Suicide Prevention, there are great insights that support these solutions and also provides tangible steps for HR professionals who are dealing with employees experiencing suicidal thoughts in real time.
Final Thoughts
evolvedMD is proud to be at the forefront of this conversation and working to reimagine behavioral health so that more have access and more lives can be saved. Behavioral health integration is uniquely positioned to help prevent suicide. Research shows that 64% of people visit primary care within a month before attempting suicide.[2] With this knowledge, we are working tirelessly to add our transformational and sometimes life-saving services to more primary care offices in Arizona to help your employees get the help they need.
If you would like a copy of our presentation on The Business Case for Mental Health, please feel free to reach out.
[1] Czeisler, et al. Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic – United States, June 24-30, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC. 2020 Aug 14;69(32):1049-1057
[2] Ahmedani, et al. Racial/Ethnic Differences in Health Care Visits Made Before Suicide Attempt Across the United States. Medical Care. May 2015;53(5):430-35.