Combatting Loneliness and Suicide in Older Adults

Suicide prevention is a crucial issue across all ages, but today we turn our focus towards a demographic that often goes unnoticed - our seniors. Joining us is Leslie Weirich, a seasoned speaker in the realm of mental health and suicide prevention. Leslie brings personal and deeply moving insights, amplified by her experience of losing her son to suicide and her broad engagement with military communities. 

Today, we will explore the alarming trend of rising suicide rates among seniors, discuss the transformative power of personal connections, and address the role of technology in fostering these crucial human interactions. Leslie's work exemplifies the profound impact that sharing, connection, and listening can have on preventing tragedies and fostering post-traumatic growth. 

We will also dive into Leslie's influential book, "The Gifts of Grief," where she chronicles her journey through loss and the lessons learned about the importance of being truly present for one another.

SeniorLivingGuide.com Podcast sponsored by TransMed Care Long Distance Medical Transportation

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Transcript

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Darleen Mahoney [00:00:10]:

Thank you. Thank you. This is, like, not my strong suit as pronouncing names sometimes, but she is joining us today to speak on the topic of suicide prevention, and she's been doing this for the past seven years. She often says she didn't choose this work, but this work chose her. At 230 in the morning on September 10, 2016, which also happens to be World Suicide Prevention Day, Leslie woke to the news that her 20 year old son, Austin had taken his own life. She wrote her first book, the Gifts of Grief, which came out on her son's birthday in January. And now she is speaking throughout the nation on post traumatic growth. We are blessed to have her today on this podcast as we discuss the rise in suicide among our senior population, how to recognize it with the hopes of preventing.

Darleen Mahoney [00:01:02]:

Thank you for having us, or thank you for joining us today on the podcast, Leslie.

Leslie Weirich [00:01:07]:

Well, thank you for having me, Darlene. You know, this is such an important topic, and I think so many times our seniors get forgotten about. You know, I work a lot with young men and youth mental health. And so as I started doing more and more research on seniors, I was just really, frankly, very surprised by the statistics of the suicide in the senior population. So thank you so much for hosting this topic, and I really look forward to having this discussion.

Darleen Mahoney [00:01:38]:

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I've noticed that there's been a trend, especially since 2020, that the increase seems to be going up in general in all populations or all sections of our population, but seniors for sure. So I think it's really understanding that it's there. Putting a blind eye to suicide is it will get you nowhere. I think you have to be informed in order to prevent it.

Leslie Weirich [00:02:06]:

I would agree with that. And, you know, as I was looking and kind of into the recent stats for seniors, I was really surprised, because last year in 2023, the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, reported, and I'll give you the exact number, 49,449 suicides. What we know about that, Darlene, is it's, it's an underreported number. It's always under reported. Suicides are always underreported. And that's a whole other topic we could go into. So I'm going to round that up to 50,000. So if you can take a city or a little a town that's around you, it's approximately 50,000 people, and just close your eyes and imagine when you wake up that town is gone.

Leslie Weirich [00:02:50]:

It's wiped off the map. That's how many people we lost in our country last year. So if we break that down, Darlene, into the senior population. Well, I should say 45 and above. Okay, so 45 and above. 53% of those 50,000 we lost last year, we're 45 years old and above. So it's definitely a topic that's worth discussing. And it's a huge issue.

Darleen Mahoney [00:03:19]:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's 25,000.

Leslie Weirich [00:03:23]:

A little more.

Darleen Mahoney [00:03:24]:

That's more than 25,000. Just in the 45 and up. Yeah, absolutely. Do we by any chance have anything from previous years? Is there an increase last year in comparison to the previous?

Leslie Weirich [00:03:38]:

Yes. So if we talk about it since. And I'm going to give you the most recent stats I could find. So to really be since 2021. So post COVID, we want to say 2021, we were coming out of COVID a little bit. Right? We were still a little bit in COVID. So since 2021, ages 45 to 64. Okay, so 45 to 64 increased 7%.

Leslie Weirich [00:04:03]:

Over 65. It rose more than 8%. So you might think, well, that's not a big deal, 78%. Right. Well, we're going to compare it to younger groups during that same period, which had a small decrease. Okay. So if we're talking about it, you know, we're looking at, you know, seven to eight. And I would say it's underreported.

Leslie Weirich [00:04:23]:

It's always these numbers we're talking about. I always hate quoting stats with suicide because they're never accurate. But what we know for sure that is definitely accurate is they're always under reported. So if we want to say 8%, we could probably round that up to ten since 2021. So over 65, we've had about a 10% increase. Yeah.

Darleen Mahoney [00:04:46]:

Yeah, that is. That is actually quite a jump.

Leslie Weirich [00:04:48]:

Yep.

Darleen Mahoney [00:04:49]:

Yeah, sure is. In a very short period of time. So in order for us to really understand maybe some of the signs and some different things that our seniors are experiencing that would cause this increase, so that maybe next year we'll see a decrease because that is clearly the goal.