James Jopling, Samaritans executive director for Scotland, says while suicide rates have fallen it still remains one of the country's biggest killers

Statistics released this week in Scotland show 680 people took their own lives last year, which represents a fall of 48 from 728 deaths in 2016. This is absolutely to be welcomed. Fewer deaths by suicide means fewer families devastated by an often unexpected and always traumatic loss.

Suicide is still thankfully a relatively rare occurrence and we need to look at longer term trends to get a better sense of what is really happening. However, the specific decrease in the last year does appear to be driven by a reduction in female suicides while the numbers in men has in fact slightly increased.

It’s middle aged men who remain at the greatest risk, with the highest rate of suicide in Scotland for men aged 45-54, see an increase for a second year. From 2015 to 2017 that’s a 36% increase in the rate of suicide for this age group. Also, for the third consecutive year, suicide in young males aged 15-24 has increased.

And the overall balance in suicides between men and women in this youngest age group is most stark. Some 83% of the suicides in Scotland of those aged 15-24 are male. This contrasts vividly with the fact that the overall number of female suicides in Scotland is at its’ lowest absolute level since 1982.

We of course welcome any fall in the overall number of deaths. But it’s too early to say whether this is a clear downward trend in the suicide rate. As the National Records of Scotland say this week in their report on deaths by suicide, ‘there has not been much difference between the numbers of probable suicides in three of the last four years, so it is unclear whether the downward trend will continue for much longer.”

The release of these statistics follows a Scottish parliamentary committee inquiry this month, where MSPs heard that Scotland was lagging behind other UK nations on suicide prevention. There were also calls from witnesses, including Samaritans Scotland, for dedicated funding to be attached Scottish Government’s new Suicide Prevention Action Plan. Just this month, the Scottish Government announced a £3 million fund to support the plan over the next three years and a new suicide prevention leadership group for Scotland.

So we are hugely encouraged that the new minister for mental health announced this week – Clare Haughey MSP – has such a wealth of professional experience of working in the NHS in mental health to bring to bear.

Our hope is that the plan she approves will be as ambitious as we’ve asked for it to be. We welcomed the announcement of a leadership group and dedicated funding, both of which we’ve been clear should be part of Scotland’s suicide prevention efforts. Now we need to see how that leadership group will have independence and teeth to make the significant change happen that we need both locally and nationally.

It’s middle aged men who remain at the greatest risk

Understanding, helping to shape and resource local action is critical. Across the period 2003-2007 to 2013-2017, overall male suicide rates dropped by 50% in Argyll and Bute, 45% in the Scottish Borders and 36% in Glasgow City yet only decreased by 1% in Fife and actually increased by 5% in South Ayrshire and 15% in Dundee City. But our understanding of what it is that is working (and not) in those areas is currently very limited.

And more broadly than that – we need to step up our efforts to understand what is driving the behaviours in men to continue to take their own lives at increased rates. And better address for those younger men how to make support more appropriate and accessible. So that we can stop losing so many men in Scotland to suicide.