[ad_1]
On Thursday, Health Minister Bent Høie presented the new action plan for suicide prevention.
On average, between 500 and 600 Norwegians have taken their own lives annually in recent years.
Høie says we know very little about every suicide in the country and allocates 10 million crowns to carry out public information campaigns to prevent suicide in the future.
– The goal is to increase awareness about suicide and depression and to get more people to seek help. We especially want to reach out to men in this campaign, says Høie.
You will find out how each suicide could have been prevented.
The Health Minister says that more systematic work with suicide prevention is needed.
– We must take a closer look at each suicide to find out what happened and how it could have been prevented. In the short term, we will start with a pilot where we do just that. In the long run, the goal is to do this with all suicides in the country, Høie promises.
– We will map each suicide, both inside and outside the health and care service. Here we are inspired by road traffic, where an in-depth analysis of all deaths in traffic is carried out, says the Minister of Health.
Høie says the government will have more autopsies in the event of suspected suicide, when it comes to drug-related deaths and in the elderly.
Number of suicides per 100,000 inhabitants of men and women in different age groups, based on figures from 2014-2018. Data source: Register of cause of death. Table: Norwegian Bank of Health Statistics, National Institute of Public Health.
Graphics: Fhi.no.
– We all need tools to endure pain.
Host Solveig Kloppen has been open about the sister taking her own life. She appreciates that the government has adopted a zero vision for suicide and says it must mean that they recognize suicide as a social problem.
Solveig Kloppen lost his sister as a result of a suicide.
Photo: NRK
– I firmly believe in openness. This is how we approach, simply. I think we all need to learn to talk about suicide, both in public space and at the kitchen table.
– But it doesn’t just help with the opening. We must have conscience, knowledge and money.
– Where to start to beat the high suicide rates in Norway?
– We all need tools to endure pain. For everyone, it hurts at one point or another in life. Tools to help each other and for themselves. When it seems all hope is gone Because I think there is always hope.
– Not all opening is good
Suicide and suicidal thoughts are still associated with shame, and for many it is difficult to talk about them, stressed the Minister of Health.
– We have given ourselves a duty of confidentiality about some of the worst things in life. Many who struggle think they are alone in this regard, but they are not, says Høie.
Still, not all opening is good, according to Høie.
– We saw that on the NRK Trigger Warning series. Closed nets showing ways of injuring and killing oneself help make suicide more accessible than one might think. This week we heard about videos showing suicide on Tik Tok.
– We want to strengthen the experience of harmful content online for those who work with children and young people. We will explore the possibility of establishing an emergency button on social media, he says.
– Zero Vision for Suicide in Norway
Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) says it is a tragedy every time a person takes their own life, both for those who were suffering so much that it seemed to be the only way out, and for those who remain.
– That is why we are now introducing zero vision for suicide in Norway. We must do more to prevent suicide and work on the basis that we have no one to lose, says Solberg.
Tove Gundersen, secretary general of the Mental Health Council, thinks it is good that the government has put in place an action plan, but it lacks financial strength.
– What I miss is that there will be financial muscle. I miss the free funds, I miss the billion as seed money to really show what the government is saying, they want to prioritize this, he says.
