The role of physicians in advocating for a national strategy for suicide prevention.

high. In 2007, 3611 individuals died by suicide — about 10 people every day. The age-standardized mortality for suicide that year was 10.2 per 100 000 population, which was higher than the age-standardized mortality for renal failure (7.9 per 100 000) and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (6.4 per 100 000). Although suicide has been studied for more than 100 years, much of the progress in preventing suicide has been achieved in the last three decades. Several countries have adopted national strategies for suicide prevention; these countries include Australia, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greenland, Japan, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the United States and Wales. Canada does not have a national strategy for suicide prevention despite specific guidance for one from the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention in its 2004 blueprint (updated in 2009). Ironically, the objectives of most existing strategies around the world for the prevention of suicide are based on expert consensus guidelines that were formulated at a meeting in Calgary and Banff, Alberta, and adopted by the United Nations in 1996. Common themes in these strategies include public education, responsible media reporting, school-based programs, detection and treatment of depression and other mental disorders, attention to those with alcohol and drug abuse, attention to those with somatic illness, enhanced access to mental health services, improvement in the assessment of attempted suicide, postvention, crisis intervention, work and unemployment policy, training and education of health professionals, and reduced access to lethal methods of suicide. Many Canadian physicians, policy-makers and politicians have not been adequately updated by experts in the field that suicide is preventable. As a result, physicians in particular may not be aware of their important role in suicide prevention. In this article, I examine the arguments for and against the need for a national strategy for suicide prevention and selectively review some of the evidence of effective strategies that may influence physicians’ practices.