Suicide prevention: inactivity of the Swiss Government
By Florian IRMINGER. Filed in English corner, STOP SUICIDE |
Switzerland witnesses a very high suicide rate among young people: “In Switzerland, 1378 people have committed suicide in the year 2000 (979 men and 399 women). This corresponds to 4 deaths/day due to suicide, or to a suicide rate of 19.1 every 100’000 residents. The Swiss suicide rate is therefore significantly higher than the world average rate […]” .”Estimates say that only 10’000 suicide attempts (4000 men and 6000 women) are counted in census and treated on a medical level, while it is supposed that between 15’000 and 25’000 attempt to commit suicide every year” (quotations are from the report of the Federal Public Health Office).
Suicide of young people is a special problem. For young aged between 15 and 24 sui-cide represents, together with road accidents, the first cause of mortality. Between 1969 and 2004, the suicide rate of the 15-19 year-old is of 10.18/ 100’000 residents and of 23.16/ 100000 residents for the 20-24 year-old . “After the backward step in the number of deaths by road accident and the drop-off in AIDS related deaths, suicide is today the first cause of death amongst men aged between 15 and 44″ (quotation again from the same Office).
Despite these overwhelming numbers, in Switzerland there is no such thing as a pro-gram or a federal objective of suicide prevention.
The Federal government argues that it is not in the position to take action, since it lacks the constitutional competence to move forward in the ambit of suicide prevention. This opinion is obviously not unanimous . Moreover the share of competence in the Swiss federal system can be deeply discussed, mainly because of the encouraging role the Confederation can take up with the cantons. In fact, at present the Confederation already holds some degree of competence in health related issues, such as mental health and prevention. Additionally, an enlargement of these activities does not require a modification of the constitutional competence.
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