The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, will unveil a national strategy on suicide prevention for the next five years on Friday morning. Quebec will allocate $ 65 million to it in hopes of reducing the number of suicides in the province to less than 1,000 per year, Radio-Canada learned.
This goal corresponds to a reduction of at least 10% in deaths by suicide in Quebec, a target the government considers ambitious. In 2019, a total of 1,128 people took their own lives in Quebec, which equates to approximately three deaths per day.
This does not count the fact that more than 3,400 people are hospitalized each year in the province following a suicide attempt.
Despite improvements in statistics since the 1990s, the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) indicates that the suicide rate has been stagnant for a decade now.
Better prevention and modification skills
With this national strategy, coming from the Health Plan recently announced by Minister Dubé, the government has also given itself the mission to better prevent the idea of suicide and reduce the level of psychological stress within the population.
To achieve this, Quebec will rely on a series of measures that will include analysis on how to approach the sensitive topic of suicide in public space with journalists, creators of works of fiction and broadcasters, in particular.
The government also wants to strengthen support for families orphaned by suicide, especially by establishing systematic engagement to encourage them to seek help.
Quebec also aims to better document suicide trends, whether in terms of methods used or areas chosen, in order to formulate recommendations as needed.
According to INSPQ data, the age group most affected by the plague of suicide is the 50-64 years. The risk of suicide is three times higher in men than in women.
Source: Radio-Canada
