Lake County Ohio Weal

  Statista: The U.S. Military Suicide  Crises   by  Anna Fleck, Aug 7, 2023 Nearly half of those serving in the U.S. military have contemplated suicide since joining the forces, according to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) Members 2022 report. This is a huge jump up from the nine percent that said they had thought about taking their own life before signing up. The following chart illustrates how the United States’ has a suicide crisis on its hands, which seemingly is not showing signs of abating. If anything, it has worsened, with the 2014 data recording a slightly lower 31 percent of veterans having experienced suicidal thoughts. According to a 2021 report by Thomas Howard Suitt at Boston University, suicide rates among the active military personnel and veterans of the post 9/11 wars have been climbing in recent years. While the same trend can be said of the general public, in the military and veterans spheres it’s happening at an even faster rat...

  Statista: Suicide Rates Around the World by  Anna Fleck, Sep 9, 2024 September 10 is World Suicide Prevention day and this year the theme is ‘Changing the Narrative on Suicide’. According to the World Health Organization, this motto is about transforming how we perceive the complex issue of suicide and “shifting from a culture of silence and stigma to one of openness, understanding, and support.” The following chart shows data on suicide prevalence in OECD countries around the world. Out of every 100,000 men in the United States, an average of 23 died from suicide in 2021, while for women the average was close to six per 100,000. In several countries these figures were even higher, such as in South Korea, Lithuania and Hungary. While there are significant differences between countries, one pattern is clear to see: the rates of men taking their own lives are generally higher than those of women. South Korea and Lithuania had the highest rates of suicide among men in 2021 (out...

  Statista: Mental Health the Top Health Concern by  Anna Fleck,   Oct 10, 2023 A 2023 Ipsos survey has found that mental health is now the chief health concern among U.S. adults, surpassing the coronavirus, obesity and cancer. As the following chart shows, 53 percent of U.S. respondents said that they thought mental health was the biggest health problem facing people in their country as of August this year, up from 51 percent in 2022. Where the coronavirus had been considered the biggest health problem by roughly two thirds of U.S. respondents through the pandemic, perceptions of the danger of the virus have now curtailed to just 15 percent of respondents considering it the most serious health issue - lower than the rates for obesity (30 percent), cancer (29 percent) and even stress (18 percent). According to the survey data, this trend is not unique to the U.S. Across the 31 countries polled by Ipsos as part of the Global Health Service Monitor, an average of 44 perce...

How Widespread Are Stress, Depression, and Anxiety?   by  Anna Fleck,   Oct 10, 2023 World Mental Health Day falls on October 10 and this year its theme is Mental Health is a Universal Human Right. As Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, explains, this means: "Every individual, regardless of their location, occupation, or identity, is entitled to achieve the highest attainable level of mental well-being. This encompasses the entitlement to safeguard oneself from mental health risks, access to mental health care that is readily available, easily accessed, and of high quality, as well as the entitlement to freedom and involvement within their community." While awareness around the topic of mental health has improved significantly in recent years, the WHO states that there is still some way to go in terms of societal attitudes and governmental policies. This includes recognizing that mental health overlaps with multiple aspects of life, inclu...

Statista: Suicide Among the Most Common Causes of Death     by Katharina Buchholz,   Sep 9, 2024 Homicide as well as suicide are common causes of death for young age groups in the United States, second only to accidents for those between the ages of 10 and 34. After that age, cancer, heart disease and more recently Covid-19 become bigger killers. Even for children aged 5-9, homicide is a big danger and was the third most common cause of death for the age group in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Homicide rates in children rose in the United States during the pandemic, increasing by as much as 50 percent for Black children and those between the ages of 16 and 17 just between 2018 and 2020. They also shot up for adults in 2020 and 2021. Of approximately 48,000 suicides recorded by the CDC in the U.S. in 2021, between 6,500 and 8,900 deaths occurred per ten-year age cohort above the age of 15. Despite being a relatively large killer of child...