Facts about Suicide in Older Adults

Older adults currently have the highest rates of suicide of any age group in the U.S.

Suicide disproportionately impacts older adults, as they represent only 13% of the population but suffer 20% of all suicide deaths.

Depression is the leading risk factor for suicide and has also been associated with acceptance of physician assisted suicide and euthanasia.

It is estimated that 20% of older adults who commit suicide visited a physician within the prior 24 hours, 41% within the past week and 75% within the past month.

There is a critical need for increased awareness of suicide risk factors, training of healthcare professionals in reliable assessment of suicide risk, and understanding and promoting protective factors, to help to avert suicide in older adults.

Risk Factors	Protective Factors
Mental disorders	Restricted access to highly lethal methods of suicide
Previous suicide attempt	Family and community support
Alcohol and substance abuse	Effective and appropriate clinical care for mental, physical, and substance abuse disorders
Hopelessness and social isolation	Easy access to a variety of clinical interventions and support for help seeking behaviors
Major physical illnesses	Support from ongoing medical and mental health care relationships
Impulsive and/or aggressive tendencies
Career, financial, relational, or social loss

APA's Office on Aging in the Public Interest Directorate is the coordination point for the Association's activities pertaining to aging. This office serves as an information and referral source on aging issues and strives to bring psychological knowledge to bear on discussions regarding matters that affect older adults. This office is headed by Aging Issues Officer, Deborah DiGilio, MPH, who can be contacted via email.

Depression and Suicide in Older Adults Resource Guide provides an overview of the problem of suicide in older adults, brief summaries of relevant research from journals, books, and reports, and links to information for older adults and their families.

APA Division 20: Adult Development and Aging is concerned with psychological development and change throughout the adult years, to discover and foster the use of various means for dealing with these changes, and to disseminate knowledge of these matters.

APA Division 12, Section 2: Clinical Geropsychology promotes education, training, and information dissemination among psychologists, related professionals, students, and others who provide services to older adults or otherwise work in applied settings dealing with the needs of the elderly. The primary goal of this group is to improve the quality of life of older individuals and their personal and professional caregivers.