About one in Nova Scotia dies every 72 hours by suicide | The Canadian News

Friday September 10 marks World Suicide Prevention Day, a day to raise awareness about mental health and suicide prevention.

Fourteen years ago, Carol Rolfe-Higney lost her 19-year-old son, Adam Cashen, to suicide. His friends and family were devastated and shocked by his death.

“Adam was a very sweet, kind, intelligent, athletic, extremely popular and handsome young man. Someone who was so active. So ‘life of the party’. How would anyone say to me, ‘Hey, your son is suffering,’ because he was the one who helped everyone else, ”he told Global News.

According to Halifax-based psychologist Simon Sherry, approximately one New Scotsman dies by suicide every 72 hours and around 4,000 Canadians are lost each year.

“Suicide Awareness Day is of enormous importance. Suicide is one of the top ten causes of death for people worldwide and is a particularly significant problem for Canadians and Neo-Scottish people. Every year we lose some of our most vulnerable citizens to suicide, ”Sherry said.

Rolfe-Higney says that prior to her son’s death, she didn’t notice anything that would have indicated that her son might have been struggling with his mental health. However, in hindsight, he says it now seems more obvious.

“He was quiet at times, overly sensitive, but nothing that really stood out at the time.”

In the months leading up to his death, Adam had lost three friends in a tragic car accident, as well as his grandfather. He began to drink alcohol excessively, as a survival mechanism. Her mother said she did mention suicide the night before she died, but she didn’t think anything about it.

Rolfe-Higney has been very transparent about her son’s death, wanted to destigmatize suicide, and says she became a mental health advocate the day he died. She is now co-coordinator of the Halifax Walk for World Suicide Prevention Day.

“I have worked a lot with families one-on-one after they lost a loved one to suicide, especially young people. I made a brochure with Dr. Stan Kutcher that is still in use today, ”he said.

Dr. Sherry says that suicide is preventable. It says that access to the means by which people die by suicide should be restricted and that more effective care should be provided to people who have suicidal thoughts.

“We need to be active in our care for people to seal the cracks in our health care system where Nova Scotians too often fail.”

Sherry says Nova Scotia lacks a funded and vigorous suicide prevention strategy. There is no financing, deadlines or urgency. It is a potential way to prevent suicide, but a “real budget with a real timetable is needed to prevent suicide in our province,” he said.

It says that if Nova Scotia chooses to dedicate the necessary funds to suicide prevention, during the first year, there will likely be a 25 percent reduction in suicide rates.

“We are losing more people to suicide than to the pandemic,” he said.