Suicide Prevention | Quebec invests 65 million for a national strategy

The Legault government is spending 65 million in a new national suicide prevention strategy, with the goal of reducing the number of deaths from suicide by 10% within four years.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

This is what the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, must announce Friday at the end of the morning, during a press conference scheduled in Montreal. In particular, Quebec wants to drop below 1,000 deaths by suicide by 2026.

The director general of the Quebec Association for the Prevention of Suicide (AQPS), Jérôme Gaudreault, as well as the co-presidents of the Collective for a National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, Lorraine Dechênes and Michael Sheehan, should also speak.

According to the most recent observations of the Office of the Chief Coroner of Quebec, compiled by the National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ), it is estimated that 1016 Quebecers ended their lives in 2020. For the moment, it is t would therefore be 112 fewer suicides than in 2019. That year, 1,128 people committed suicide in Quebec. In 2018, this figure was 1094. Data for 2021 is not yet available.

Normalize the request for help

According to our sources, the National Strategy 2022-2026 – which is part of the Minister’s Health Plan – aims in particular to normalize the request for help, in particular among men, by providing more information on existing resources.

Behind the scenes, they say they want to pay particular attention to the “possible perverse effects” of public awareness activities, by informing the public and the media about good practices to adopt when suicide is discussed in the public space.

Quebec also wants to follow the evolution of the means used by Quebecers to take their lives, citing in particular the number of overdoses or “access to high places and other structures”. Last December, The Press reported that an upsurge in suicide attempts prompted the Signature Group on the Saint-Lawrence (SSLG) to “initiate a reflection” on safety at the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge (PSDC). Several experts then worried about the increase in distress across society in recent months.

In the health network, the authorities also intend to make doctors and all other professionals aware “of the risks represented by the use of certain medications” in the context of suicidal behavior. Finally, the Legault government aims to develop a mechanism allowing it to systematically contact families and loved ones following a death by suicide.

Remember that three Quebecers die by suicide every day, on average. According to data from prevention organizations, approximately 30 people have attempted suicide for each person who died by suicide, and 200 others have had suicidal thoughts.

The new national government strategy is the result of an extensive consultation process, which has been carried out over the past few months with several organizations in the health and social services network, professional orders, research groups and labor organizations, among others.

With Fanny Levesque