The charity's research found that as deprivation increases, so does suicidal behaviour. It also found hospital admissions following self-harm was twice as high in deprived areas compared with the most affluent, while suicide risk increased with unemployment.
"There is now overwhelming evidence of a strong connection between socioeconomic deprivation and suicidal behaviour in Wales," said Sarah Stone, the charity's executive director for Wales. "Suicide is not inevitable; there are actions we can take so that difficult times do not result in people dying."
The charity said each year between 300 and 350 people died by suicide in Wales, which is around three times the number killed in road accidents. It is the most common cause of death for men aged 20 to 49 and the leading cause of death of people under 25.
It called for better public information to help reduce unmanageable debt, better support for those bereaved by suicide and investment in community groups to tackle loneliness and isolation.
South Wales branch of the Socialist Party
Monday, 12 March
7:30 - 9:00pm
Unitarian Church,
High Street,
Swansea SA1 1NZ
For more information please contact:
The Socialist Party is the party of the working class, the party of emancipation and is made up of men and women who scorn to compromise with their oppressors; who want no votes that can be bought and no support under any false pretense whatsoever. It is not begging for votes, nor asking votes, nor bargaining for votes. It is not in the vote market. It wants votes but only of those who want it-those who recognise is as their party, and come to it of their own free will. To be sure we want all the votes we can get but only as a means of developing the political power of the working class in the struggle for industrial freedom, and not that we may revel in the spoils of office.
The Socialist Party is the party of the workers, organised to express in political terms their determination to break their chains and rise to the dignity of free men and women. The Socialist Party stands squarely upon its socialist principles and relies wholly upon the education of the working class. The workers themselves must take the initiative in uniting their forces for effective political action; leaders will never do it for them. They must no longer suffer themselves to be deceived by the specious arguments of their betrayers. The workers must unite and develop their political power to conquer and abolish the capitalist political state and clear the way for industrial and social democracy.
The Samaritans' suggestions of helping the poor to socialise and providing them with debt counselling are deplorably feeble responses to disgracefully high suicide and poverty levels in Wales. Why are there any people living in poverty in the UK when it is the 6th richest nation on the planet? A few tens of billions of pounds would end poverty. In fact it would probably cost the government less to end poverty that it costs to pay for it. A report by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2016 estimated that poverty costs the UK tax payer £78 billion a year, through such things as increased health care costs, policing and criminal justice, lost tax revenues and payment of benefits. So why doesn’t the government simply use this money to end poverty? Because then the capitalist system wouldn’t be able to function. Poverty and debt are essential components of capitalism. Without the subjugation and fear that poverty creates people would demand a better lot for themselves. Debt is the oxygen of capitalism. Without it capitalism would suffocate. Debt stimulates demand for products and services and thus keeps the whole merry go round of profit and capitalism going. No, it is not tea and sympathy that the poor need. It is to rid themselves of the iniquitous capitalist system which makes life unbearable for them. Socialism has no need for debt and no conception of the term poverty and thus provides a fundamental and sustainable alternative to capitalism, rather than offering mere palliatives.
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