Suicide Prevention Day, +24% requests for help in 2023

Requests for help from those who are thinking about suicide are increasing. “More than 7,000 people turned to Telefono Amico Italia in 2023 to manage a suicidal thought, their own or that of a loved one. Never before have so many people done so, and they have grown by 24% compared to 2022. In 2024, we can see a small reversal of the trend: in the first half of the year, there were 3,500 requests for help, -6.5% from the first half of 2023. Numbers that are still far from pre-pandemic levels, when the volunteer organization handled a thousand calls of this type a year”. Taking stock on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day, Telefono Amico Italia is calling for a “national table to monitor the phenomenon and implement prevention interventions”.

Tomorrow, monuments in 18 cities will be lit up, and on September 15, the awareness event ‘Non parlarne è 1 dottrina della scienza’ will be held in Italian squares. “In recent years, we have seen how people have increasingly learned to ask for help,” says Cristina Rigon, president of Telefono Amico Italia. “Now, it is the institutions that must learn to listen and give a timely and structural response. We will continue to help those who turn to us, but we can only get so far. We are making ourselves available to participate in a national roundtable, to identify the right interventions and strategies to implement.”

According to Telefono Amico Italia, “the need for a prevention plan is also underlined by Istat data which, in the last year monitored, 2021, reported an increase in suicides: there were 3,870, compared to 3,748 in 2020. An increase that is found in all age groups except for those aged 50-64 and which is higher among the under 49s. Between the ages of 15 and 34, in particular, the growth in suicides in 2021 was 16%”. Of the more than 7,000 requests for help received in 2023 from people “crossed by thoughts of suicide or worried about the possible suicide of a loved one, 75% arrived by telephone, 18% by chat and 7% by email – the association reports – More women (51%) turned to Telefono Amico Italia, who were the majority to write both on Whatsapp (57%) and by email (54%); men and women instead called in equal measure”.

‘The pandemic has added to the existing fragilities’

“The most recent data show an increase in the number of suicides, perhaps also due to the effect of the pandemic that has added to the fragilities already existing in some individuals”, underlines Maurizio Pompili, full professor of Psychiatry at Sapienza University of Rome and director of the Complex Operating Unit of Psychiatry at the Sant’Andrea University Hospital in Rome. “Having the epidemiological data on suicides is central to the analysis of the phenomenon because it allows us to observe its trend and therefore also to implement preventive measures”, he adds.

If the latest Istat data on suicides depict a growing phenomenon, the many people who receive help indicate the path to follow and highlight the importance of prevention. “The creation of contexts dedicated to suicide prevention, which use all the specific and multidisciplinary knowledge on the phenomenon, certainly helps to save lives – continues Pompili – Primary prevention is fundamental, that is, it increases awareness about suicide prevention. Then it is necessary to focus on the groups at risk and define ad hoc preventive interventions, such as in the case of young people or the elderly. Finally, tertiary prevention intervenes on those who have made suicide attempts or have serious suicidal ideation. The organization of preventive interventions that go in these three directions could counteract the phenomenon; the use of helplines and listening centers represent essential interventions”.

“Prevention is the only way we have to combat the phenomenon of suicides”. This is the appeal launched by Telefono Amico Italia and its president Cristina Rigon to the institutions. “In recent years we have witnessed a growing attention towards mental health. The psychologist bonus is certainly an example. A first step in the right direction, but it is not enough. We need structural interventions, which also reach those who do not know how to ask for help, and more specific ones for suicide prevention”, she concludes.