
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 12, 1991                   TAG: 9103120425
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SEEKING DEATH/ VIRGINIA'S ELDERS: BIG SUICIDE RISK

MANY OF US associate suicide with the brooding, tempestuous days of youth, or with the despair that can burden the middle years. But statistically, those most likely to take their own lives are aged 65 years or older.

Nationally, suicide rates among all Americans are 12.1 per 1,000 persons, 11.9 among 15-to-24-year-olds - and 19.2 among the elderly. They have always ranked highest in this category.

The figures are even more somber in our own state. For some reason, older Virginians kill themselves at a rate of 21.7 per 1,000. They're 10.1 percent of the state's population but account for 17 percent of the suicides. Every three days, a Virginia elder - usually a white male - commits suicide. In 80 percent of the cases, they use guns - an unsurprising statistic for the commonwealth.

An expert has written that older suicides go about it with unusual "determination and single-mindedness." One reason they are so often successful is the frailty that comes with age.

Sad, you murmur; but what has this to do with me? The average age of Virginians, like that for the entire country, is rising. More elderly people means, statistically, more risk of suicides.

Concerned by the trend, the 1988 General Assembly asked the state's Department for the Aging to make a study of the phenomenon of elders' suicide and offer recommendations. The department is now putting into effect a plan to help professionals in health, social services and mental health head off such tragic and wrenching occurrences.

Survivors, too, need help. Suicide often makes life worse for the bereaved, who must often cope - as one study has said - with guilt, shame, denial, hostility, depression and withdrawal. Survivors are at increased risk of physical and mental-health problems. The disruption of their lives affects even those outside their immediate circle.

The state should not be meddlesome when an elderly person simply seeks dignity in dying. But suicide is a death that's often hard to bury. More attention cast on it would help.

by CNB