QUEENS, New York— The last 10 years have represented a major increase in the rate of suicide for Asian people over age 65, especially in places that are economically prospering such as South Korea, Taiwan and China. Experts attribute the increase to changing familial and economic patterns that can leave elderly people lonely and destitute.
Elderly Suicides on the Rise
Between 1990 and 2009, the elderly suicide rate for South Koreans increased from 14 per 100,000 to 77 per 100,000. This rate is one of the highest in the developed world.
The 2010 rate in Taiwan was 35.8 per 100,000, twice the rate of any other age group on the island. Suicides committed by urban Chinese from ages 70 to 74 increased dramatically in the 1990s to mid-2000s, from 13.39 to 33.76 per 100,000 people.
Experts suggest that these numbers could even be artificially low due to unreported suicides and poor data collection.
These increasing elderly suicide rates in developed Asian nations contrast to trends in the rest of the developed world.
A study of the roughly 30 wealthy countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that suicide rates are decreasing. In 1990, the rate was 16.17 per 100,000, which dropped to 13.29 in 2010. In 2007, the United States had a rate of 14.3 per 100,000 people.
The World Health Organization reports that there are above-average suicide rates amongst elderly people in South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
The rate has remained constant and lower than average in poorer Asian nations such as Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Shifting Social Patterns
A report from 2011 found that elderly mental health and welfare will likely decrease in Asia over the next 20 years, and with this trend, suicide rates are expected to continue to rise.
Fewer children in these Asian countries are taking an active care-giving role with parents despite increased wealth and resources. Many parents and children also increasingly live far from one another.
According to Professor Kua Ee Hoek of Singapore’s National University Health System, the one-child policy in China has decreased the number of caregivers, a trend that has coincided with a mass migration of young people into urban centers. This movement leaves many of China’s 194 million elderly without social support and care.
In South Korea, a social contract has existed between parents and children that assumes that parents will give almost anything to their children—including a very expensive education—and in return, children will take care of their parents during old age. Because of this tacit agreement, South Korea did not have a pension system until 1988.
Even with this pension system now in place, many say that payments are so low as to not cover basic costs of living. Furthermore, older Koreans who did not pay into the newly-adopted system do not benefit from it, leaving many Korean seniors vulnerable to poverty and poor emotional well-being.
According to Professor Jing Jun of China’s Tsinghua University, roughly 90 percent of people in the West who commit suicide have a mental illness. That figure in China is 50 percent.
However, though impulsive suicide may be less common in China, mental well-being is nonetheless a major factor in elderly people’s decisions to kill themselves. Depression, anxiety, boredom, and loneliness are all factors, according to a 2009 study, that contribute to strong negative emotions and suicidal ideation.
States Address Rising Numbers
Governments in Asia are actively addressing the problem of elderly suicide. In China, the government has created programs for seniors that include medical care, counseling, emergency assistance and basic daily care.
Elderly Chinese parents can also now sue their children for neglect.
In 1995, Singapore began to address its overwhelming elderly suicide rates, which were 60 per 100,000 people among ethnic Chinese men. This rate was the second-highest in the world.
At the same time, suicides among elderly Malay Singaporeans were two per 100,000, which represented some of the lowest figures in the world.
Experts attributed Singapore’s wide discrepancy to changing social structures in Chinese households, much like changes happening in mainland China, and the Singaporean government decided to act.
The Health Ministry planned activities for seniors that promoted a more social and communal atmosphere for the elderly. Care centers opened to foster improved emotional and social well-being for seniors.
For the 10 years after 1995, the suicide rate among the elderly in Singapore lessened every year. The rate has, however, increased since 2005. In 2009, the rate for elderly suicide among men was 28.7 per 100,000 and 19 for women.
Xu Kun, director of the Love Delivery Hotline, a suicide hotline for Chinese seniors, states that there exist “three pillars” that affect elderly well-being and risk of suicide—love of a partner, personal health and their comparative role in society.
When these pillars dissolve, according to Xu, a person becomes more vulnerable to negative emotions and even suicide, which is why she runs her prevention hotline.
Her phone calls to the elderly, Xu asserts, can truly be enough to save a life—an effort that will be imperative for developed Asian nations moving forward.
Xu states, “15 minutes of conversation is like 15 minutes of sunshine.”
Sources: Global Post, Asian Times, New York Times
Photo: Fotopedia