New Flinders university study reveals the shocking number of older Australians dying by suicide

SA researchers have broken new ground in a study of people entering the aged care system, and it makes grim reading.

Shocking new research shows dozens of older Australians are dying by suicide each year – falling through the cracks, scared and alone, as they wait to move into aged-care facilities.

For the first time, Adelaide researchers have looked at the number of people aged over 65 who are ending their own lives, before accessing aged-care services.

In a largely overlooked statistic, older adults record the highest age-specific suicide rate of any age group in most countries.

In Australia, the suicide rate among men aged 85 and older is three times that observed in the general population.

“There is a misconception that older people who die by suicide are choosing it as a way of euthanasia or something like but actually what we know is, most older people who die by suicide are very distressed,” research co-author Dr Monica Cations said.

A senior research fellow with the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University, Dr Cations said the new study was significant as it hadn’t been done before.

Dr Monica Cations, Flinders University Picture: Supplied

“This is the first time anyone has really looked into this … we know that period when you have been told you need to go into a facility is a risk time for suicide because people can feel quite distressed by the idea of moving into residential care,” she said.

The data showed 354 older people, who were in the process of accessing or waiting for aged-care services, died by suicide in the nine-year focus of study.

Dr Cations, a clinical psychologist, said while small when considered as a percentage of the 530,000 who died nationwide in the same time period, the numbers were of concern.

“We need to take this risk seriously … we’ve older people who are really vulnerable falling through the cracks (when) each death by suicide is potentially preventable,” she said.

“(This research) is telling us, we need to have this on our radar … older people may not reach out for help when they need it but we as family, as professionals, we all need to have these conversations and check in with people.

“And certainly if people … are having to move into residential care we should talk about the emotional impact of that and help people can access to counselling or whatever helps them with that transition.

“Effectively preventing suicide in older adults requires multi-component interventions that target social isolation, clinical symptoms, access to lethal methods, stigma, help seeking, and access to mental health services,” she said.

The research showed that fewer than 20 per cent of the older people who died by suicide received any Medicare-subsidised mental health service in the year before their death.

The snapshot of statistics was taken pre Covid and before the The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality.

“All the negative media attention (these events) have bought, would likely have only made people more afraid,” Dr Cations said.