“Only 8 percent of people who died by suicide last year received help from a psychologist or psychotherapist, and this is one of the major challenges that need to be addressed,” said the deputy minister at the press conference of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Commission held in the Seimas on Thursday.
“One of the priorities is to further strengthen analytics so that we can move towards very precise suicide prevention targeted at especially high-risk groups,” he noted.
According to I. Rubikas, people with disabilities make up the highest risk group, “which is almost ten times higher than the general population rate,” and a high suicide risk is also experienced by the unemployed, men doing physical work, and pension-age individuals.
“At the same time, these are groups that are the hardest to reach,” said the deputy minister.
Strengthening cause analysis, cooperation between institutions
An important innovation to prevent suicides he identified is the initiation of the so-called coroner’s investigation, which will allow the assessment of a large number of suicides by analyzing their underlying causes.
In addition, according to I. Rubikas, the ministry aims to apply the cluster service organization principle, which has proven effective in other healthcare areas, to suicide prevention.
“This allows moving towards a new generation service organization principle, where we pay for results and value achieved through the joint work of several institutions, rather than just for a separate service in one institution that may not see the broader context at the moment of discharge and after discharge,” said the deputy minister.
According to Austėja Agnietė-Čepulienė, a suicidologist at Vilnius University Psychology Institute, about 15 percent of those admitted to treatment facilities’ emergency and urgent care departments receive further assistance.
“And these people can also be at quite high risk of suicide. (…) It is very important that help for a person is continuous,” said the researcher.
Among the priorities, the deputy minister also named the approval of a new Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
“Which will include both the continuity of previous effective measures and new activities. Here we want to put a stronger emphasis on inter-institutional cooperation. Because we see that both in statutory services, schools, and in the group of service recipients of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour institutions, in social risk, and among the unemployed, there is a high concentrated risk,” indicated I. Rubikas.
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Lithuania – first among EU countries in suicides
According to Eurostat data published on Wednesday, in 2023 the number of suicides in Lithuania was 18.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the Union.
In Slovenia, this rate was 16.4 cases, in Hungary – 16.1. The lowest suicides were recorded in Cyprus, where there were 3.5 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants, Greece – 4.3, and Malta – 5.5.
“We made a tiger leap in Lithuania, halving the number of suicides over 15–20 years, but as mentioned, we are again among the first in Europe, and despite great progress, further strong and decisive actions are needed in this area,” emphasized I. Rubikas.
Former chairwoman of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Commission, parliamentarian Jekaterina Rojaka, stressed concern about the large gap in suicide numbers between different municipalities, indicating varying access to help.
“Differences at the municipal level are up to seven times, and we must ensure that additional help is provided in those municipalities where the rates are worst, so that they decrease at the fastest pace,” said the member of parliament.
The deputy minister of health mentioned that algorithms aimed at managing suicide risk are actively being developed in municipalities.
“This is the main measure for the mentioned problem, that the difference between municipalities is still large, on average about three times between the best and worst performing municipalities,” indicated I. Rubikas.
In the Western Lithuania region, Eurostat counts 21.2 suicides per 100,000 people, while in the capital region – 12.7.
According to service data, across the EU in 2023, 48,370 people died from intentional self-harm, accounting for 1.0 percent of all deaths. The rate per 100,000 inhabitants slightly decreased – to 10.4 suicides, compared to 10.6 cases in 2022.
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