Suicide is recognized as an increasing concern for global employers. The numbers are staggering. More than 700,000 people die by suicide worldwide each year, and many more make suicide attempts. In fact, suicide is the 15th leading cause of death globally for all age groups.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, one person dies by suicide every 11 minutes in the United States. Over 48,000 Americans died by suicide in 2021, making suicide the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. It is the second leading cause of death for persons aged 20-34 and the third leading cause of death for persons aged 10-19. Over 10% of Americans have thought about suicide and an estimated 1.7 million suicide attempts are made each year.
And, while fewer than 300 suicide deaths occurred in the workplace, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, eighty percent of all deaths by suicide in the U.S. are among men and women ages 45 to 54 – prime work years. Over 50 percent of people who died by suicide had no known prior mental health conditions.
Costs of Suicide
Suicide and suicide attempts take a tremendous emotional toll on the families, friends, and co-workers of those who died, and those who survived suicide attempts. But suicide also has profound economic costs for individuals and families, lost income for families, and lost productivity for employers.
The most recent data from a 2015 study, Suicide and Suicidal Attempts in the United States: Costs and Policy Implications revealed:
- The average cost of one suicide was greater than $1.3 million.
- More than 97 percent of this cost was due to lost productivity. The remaining 3 percent were costs associated with medical treatment.
- The total cost of suicides and suicide attempts was $93.5 billion.
In addition to the emotional and financial costs, suicide and suicide attempts can directly impact the workplace in terms of overall reduced productivity and motivation; decreased worker morale; increased costs for replacement, recruitment, and training if an employee is dismissed for health or productivity reasons; and, strained coworker relationships.
Suicide is Preventable
Researchers, medical and mental health professionals agree that suicide is often preventable. Suicide prevention requires a comprehensive approach to strengthen access to and delivery of crisis care; create protective environments; identify and support people at risk; increase awareness about indicators and warning signs; promote connectedness; and, reduce risk factors.
Insofar as the workplace is a microcosm of the greater society, incidents of suicide and suicide attempts in the workplace are inevitable. However, responsible employers can play a key role in prevention through education, awareness, workplace culture, and preparedness. If we normalize conversations about suicide and mental illness, if we Know the Signs and risk factors, and we know how to Take Action, we can help employees in need.
Make it Easy to Ask for Help
Perhaps the most important role we can all play in preventing suicide is to remove the stigma that is associated with mental health issues. We need to make it easy and acceptable for people who are suffering from depression, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness to be able to ask for help without shame, fear of blame and ridicule, and without adverse consequences for their job security and professional stature. Stigma prevents people from seeking the help they need. But there’s good news. Stigma is 100% curable. Compassion, empathy, and understanding are the antidote.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has identified Five Steps for caring for someone who may be suicidal:
1. Ask the person directly if they are thinking about suicide. Listen and help them focus on their reasons for staying alive. Acknowledging and talking about suicide may actually reduce rather than increase suicidal ideation.
2. Keep them safe, by understanding if they have a plan for suicide, and whether they have the capability and access to execute their plan. Implement safety measures to remove access to lethal means.
3. Be there by being physically present, if possible, providing emotional support, or maintaining telephone contact. Try to identify a support system that can physically be with someone who is actively suicidal.
4. Help them connect to ongoing support networks such as Lifeline and mental health professionals who can help to establish a safety plan, be available during a crisis, and work with the person to treat the underlying depression, develop coping skills, and reduce the sense of hopelessness
5. Follow-up after the crisis has resolved to reinforce ongoing support, monitor progress, and increase feelings of connectedness.
How Can We Help
At SEC, our mission is to help you create and maintain secure environments in which your greatest assets can be productive, learn, and grow. Our commitment to security includes creating a culture of caring that promotes personal safety, health, and mental wellness. We understand that safety and security are complex and multi-faceted endeavors. We are dedicated to providing you with personalized and customized consulting services.
This is why we partner with the best to deliver holistic, multi-disciplinary solutions for your workplace safety and security needs. We are proud to partner with Dr. Coggins to bring you her expertise in the prevention of targeted violence and behavioral threat assessment. Together, we can support you in developing a comprehensive security strategy that includes workplace suicide prevention policy and best practices.
If you or someone you know may be struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call or text 988. You can also find a variety of helpful resources from the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention: https://afsp.org/suicide-prevention-resources/
About the Author:
Dr. Coggins is a trusted advisor and an experienced security consultant, bringing over 30 years of specialized work in the prevention of targeted violence, threat assessment, behavioral analysis, and change management. She is a subject matter expert in workplace violence prevention programs; school and campus safety; insider threat and fraud prevention models; and, protective intelligence investigations. As a psychologist, Dr. Coggins’s approach emphasizes proactive prevention and intervention strategies to mitigate risk. From her law enforcement background, Dr. Coggins’s implements operationally relevant, tactically sound, and practically valid solutions. She routinely consults on best practices for program design and implementation, policy development, communications strategies, and training to achieve safety and security objectives. A common denominator throughout Dr. Coggins’s distinguished career is her demonstrated ability to align mission and business priorities with workforce talent and organizational culture. She is recognized as an innovative leader, advancing partnerships and information sharing between Federal law enforcement, mental health, social science research, mental health law, and criminal justice systems. Her work includes providing training and assistance to law enforcement on dealing with the mentally ill.
