Knesset to discuss suicide prevention as rates drop

Suicide rate is higher among recent immigrants due to their stresses and possibly loneliness.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
suicidek, depression_311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
suicidek, depression_311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Suicide is the second-most-common cause of death among males aged 15 to 24 and the third-most-common cause among their female counterparts and men aged 25 to 44. The Health Ministry released these and other statistics on Monday before plenary and committee session on preventing suicides to be held on Tuesday.
According to the figures, there were 404 suicides in 2009 and 354 in 2010 compared to 425 deaths in 2005, thus the number of suicides has been in the decline in the last five years and stable during the previous decade.
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Although the rate is relatively high among teens and young adults, the rate is higher among the elderly 75 years and older.
The suicide rate is higher among recent immigrants due to their stresses and possibly loneliness. Since the beginning of the 21st century, a third of suicides in this country were of new immigrants, and a quarter of those came since 1990 from the former Soviet Union and between 3% and 8% of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants who arrived since 1980.
In 2009, of the 120 suicides by former immigrants aged 15 years and above, 99 were from the former Soviet Union and 14 from Ethiopia. The suicide rate in divorced people aged 25 to 44 was significantly higher than in married women and men.