Suicide levels have increased significantly since Covid times: Sadag

The festive season comes with an overwhelming feeling of defeat and depression with more people opting for suicide as they cannot keep up with life’s pressures.

This is according to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) operations director Cassey Chambers, reflecting on data that suicide-related deaths have increased by 54% compared to pre-Covid levels, with the biggest increases coming from people under the age of 40.

Guy Chennells, GM and head of product at Discovery Employee Benefits

said unnatural deaths are 20% above the levels recorded for unnatural deaths during the 2020 financial year.

“We have noted that suicide statistics in the under 30s age group have skyrocketed, but there was also a significant increase in the 30 to 40-year-old age group. It could be because people in the middle-age bands are the ones facing the most economic pressure with the rising interest rates and inflation putting pressure on their bond repayments, other debt, and family financial commitments,” adds Chennells.

Unnatural deaths caused by crime had increased sharply during Covid-19, with a seeming correlation to rising unemployment, “but we note that although still higher than before Covid, crime related death rates are 30% down from the Covid-19 period peak as employment rates have improved slightly from the record-high unemployment rates recorded in 2021,” she said.

Chambers said that they are not surprised by the statistics as they have also been receiving an overwhelming number of calls from people seeking suicide intervention.

“When we look at the study, its talking about a sector of the population that has access to private care and they are able to afford health insurance. This is concerning. It shows us that depression, mental health and suicide doesn’t discriminate and can affect every age, race, gender and socioeconomic background.

“The first and foremost thing is that we need to create awareness and break the stigma around suicide and create more safe space for people to share. The more we talk about it, the more we are aware of the signs of suicide.

“There is so much help available but sometimes the nature of the beast doesn’t give us the motivation or the willingness to get help,” said Chambers.

She said the pressures, especially during the festive season, come with people dealing with a lot of stresses like financial, employment, even having to adjust to load-shedding.

“All of these have had an impact on our day to day functioning. We have seen more and more people reaching out because they are feeling depressed. In the festive season and New Year coming around there’s often an overwhelming feeling of pressure and reflection on what’s next, what I have done and what I can do,” said Chambers.

According to the report, the mortality acceleration is a term used to describe when the number of deaths accelerates “ahead of schedule” and ahead of a normal expected death rate. In other words, some members whose health was already compromised (and would have been more likely to die in the following year or two due to their existing frailties or comorbidities) died from Covid-19.

“There are so many things happening. Certain conditions that were causing an increase in natural deaths are down over the past 12 months, while others are increasing. It’s interesting to show what’s happening but it’s hard to predict what will happen in the coming years, given all these effects,” said Chennells.

The claims trends for July 2022 to the end of June 2023 differ by cause of claim and by age, gender or income groups within each cause of claim, making the ultimate trend trajectory looking ahead very hard to predict.

Chennells said the insights emerging in 2023 show that there has been an increase in disability claims, with significant differences in the trends of diseases driving disability claims compared to pre-pandemic levels three years ago.

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