Suicide: Why Are Older “White” Men So Vulnerable?

In this course, Dr Silvia Sara Canetto, Colorado State University, notes the high rates of suicide among older adults in the United States and rebuts the dominant theory that the rates are a response to the losses and adversities of ageing. She asserts, rather, that the gender, ethnic, and mental health paradoxes of American older adult suicide suggest that something else is happening. That something, she proposes, can be found in the cultural scripts theory of suicidal behaviour. Specifically, dominant suicide norms in the United States suggest that suicide is more permissible when it is a response to illness and when it would be carried out by an older adult, especially a man. This is because of the hidden cultural norm that suicide is a powerful, courageous masculine act to retain control and not lose masculine dignity through loss of physical integrity. Thus, suicide prevention in this demographic can be powerfully assisted by assessment of beliefs about the meanings and permissibility of suicide for different people and education about potentially enabling suicide scripts.