[petertodd]

"Suicide attempt admissions have increased by 100 per cent on average during the pandemic," the release says. "Admissions for substance-use disorders have increased by 200 per cent."

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cheo-joins-other-children-s-hospit...

While that's not the same as saying actual deaths from suicide have increased, there is a serious problem, at least here in Canada.

edit: Attempts up 90% in Colorado as well:

https://coloradosun.com/2021/05/25/mental-health-emergency-c...

[thebruce87m]

Sure, I was aware of the increase in ideation and attempts but we were talking about excess deaths. I don’t like it when articles use percentages and omit the absolute numbers which are also important to give a sense of scale.

Suicide is a serious issue and shouldn’t be ignored. We should also apply the same logic to suicides as people are applying to covid - would these people have tried suicide anyway but covid/lockdown just brought it forward? Will we therefore have a drop in attempts now to mirror the spike up?

[mattmanser]

You're cherry picking numbers.

While a children's hospital in Colorado might have reported a 90% increase, across the whole of the US suicides were down 5%.

As far as I know, most countries are reporting an overall drop in suicides during the pandemic.