Effectiveness of Suicide Prevention Programmes and Factors Accounting for 50% Rise in Suicide Deaths Among Adults aged 30 to 39

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry will review how provisional suicide statistics are compiled and communicated, given upward revisions in the finalised 2023 and 2024 figures; (b) what factors account for the 50% rise in suicide deaths among adults aged 30 to 39 over that period; and (c) whether targeted intervention is planned for this age group.

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) what is the Ministry's assessment of the effectiveness and adequacy of suicide prevention strategy and programmes, particularly (i) for youth, given that suicide has remained the leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 29 for seven consecutive years and (ii) for men, who account for the majority of suicide deaths; and (b) how does the Government plan to address these findings.

Sir, may I have your permission to answer Question Nos 8 and 9 together, please?

Please proceed.

Sir, before I begin to answer the questions, I also like to share with the House that, coincidentally, today is World Suicide Prevention Day. I am sure all of us would like to take this opportunity to grieve with those who have lost loved ones, honour the courage of those who have held on and encourage those who are still struggling.

To Ms He's questions, the data on suicide deaths is published by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority annually, based on data from the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths.

For youths, suicide can appear as a leading cause of death because deaths from illnesses are uncommon at these ages. And male suicide rates are also observed to be significantly higher across nearly all developed economies. Overall, Singapore’s suicide rate is generally lower compared to other developed economies. We note the increase in suicides among those aged 30 to 39 in 2024, following a relatively stable trend in the preceding years.

Every suicide is painful. We must continue to prevent suicides as best as we can. However, suicide is multifactorial. Based on a study by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) last year, suicide may be associated with ongoing physical health issues, breakdown in significant relationships or a combination of factors. Poor mental health is also a contributor of suicide. Strengthening mental resilience and encouraging early help-seeking are therefore key to suicide prevention. These are being implemented through the National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy.

Broader yet salient factors to prevent suicides are a stable society, peace and stability, supportive family environment, supported by a good education system, public housing and healthcare system. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of our measures.

Ms He.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. I would also like to note that I believe the House would also like to express their appreciation for the professionals and practitioners who have been working very hard in what is a very challenging role in both supporting those who are experiencing suicidal thoughts, and also their families and loved ones are also affected by that.

I would like to ask some supplementary questions in relation to the topic that is before before the House today. The first being that as the Senior Minister of State pointed out, male suicide deaths around the world have been observed to be higher. I believe I asked why and what are the factors, in the Ministry's assessment, that this is the case. Understanding the reasons why would help us to address that.

Which leads me to my second supplementary question. I believe there have been calls from groups, such as The Project Hayat, who released a White Paper for a national suicide prevention strategy. So, I would like to ask as well whether the Senior Minister of State can share some timelines in relation to when this will be released on a national level by the Ministry.

And the third supplementary question relates specifically to the revision of statistics. We understand that sometimes, there has to be some revision between the provisional statistics and also the final statistics that have been released. But advocates and also people who are active in the space have shared that this has been quite challenging, especially in the wait. I believe the numbers show a 35% to 40% difference between the provisional statistics and the eventual ones, and these have been uptakes.

So, naturally there is a lot of concern, and I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State to share what are the reasons why there have been such a big gap? And what is actually being done to make sure that firstly, that the gap in time is less and also whether there is anything else we can do to ensure we are not looking at figures between 35% and 40%.

Sir, I thank the Member, Ms He, for her three supplementary questions. And I agree with her. Behind every suicide statistic is a person, and family and friends who care for them; and every suicide is something that we care deeply about.

This morning, I was with the Samaritans of Singapore, speaking with the counsellors and volunteers at the frontline, speaking to people who have lost loved ones to suicides, and speaking to suicide survivors. And it is hard work. This is something that requires the collective effort of society, not just the Government, but also community organisations and for all of us to play an important role. And so, I thank the Member for raising this important issue.

Let me address her third question first, which is a more technical question regarding the provisional numbers. The reason why we publish the figures in a timely manner, even though those might be provisional and would be updated later on, is to ensure there is transparency; that there is in enough information out there – for the purpose of transparency, for us to make decisions and to understand the trends and understand how we can better support those who are in need.

The reason why there is a time lag between the provisional numbers and the ones that are to be updated later on is because the provisional number of deaths reported in the annual report on Registration of Births and Deaths are based on those confirmed to be suicides at the time of the publication of the report. At the time of the publication, there could, in addition, be a number of unnatural death cases which are still pending an outcome from the coroner's inquiry. So, they are pending the coroner's inquiry.

These cases are captured in the same report under the header "Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified".

We are transparent in publishing all the figures but some of the figures in that category have not been confirmed as suicide by the coroner. Some of these cases may then subsequently be classified as suicides after the coroner's inquiry and the number of suicides for that year will be updated. So, it is a process that we go through and we are working very closely with the different agencies to ensure those numbers are updated in a timely manner. But really, we publish those figures on a regular basis for transparency reasons. So, that is the third supplementary question.

For the other two supplementary questions. The first one on men, the Member is right to highlight men. For many years, men have made up the majority of suicide deaths. And we have seen similar patterns across the world internationally. One difficult reality is that sometimes the person who needs help may be the one least likely to ask for it.

But we cannot design a system that depends only on someone putting up their hand. So, we are taking a holistic approach: making sure to reduce stigma to improve suicide literacy, but also to help families, friends, colleagues and communities to recognise distress and connect someone to help.

There was a very nice, lovely Forum letter in Lianhe Zaobao today written by someone who has spent time volunteering in suicide prevention work. His message is, I think, a very timely one. He asked are we prepared to listen when we ask someone "How are you?". And oftentimes, the person may express distress, but are we really willing to listen? That applies to all of us – colleagues, friends, classmates. We are working together with community partners to make sure that those in distress know where help is. There is no point having services and help available, but they are not reachable.

Which brings me to the reply to Ms He's second question. Whether there is a formal strategy, I think it is a separate matter. But practically, we are already implementing many of the programmes together with our community partners across different initiatives, focusing not just at the point of help. Someone in distress who has symptoms and has signs even before they pick up the hotline to call, or even before they show up in our hospitals or medical institutions. And how are we building the mental health and resilience in our population, especially young people from early age, whether through The Youth Resilience plan, building up resilience in our young people, strengthening protective factors over the longer term. Or post-crisis youths; those who are discharged from hospitals, because the crisis does not end there. How do you prevent them from having distress and social triggers again? When they are discharged from hospital or out of institutions, how do we work with community partners to better support them to get back to living? And how do we make sure that we mange crisis in a much more coordinated manner across different parties: healthcare, education institutions, community groups, volunteer groups. We are working on those and efforts are in place.

And fourthly, suicide literacy. We are investing a lot more to raise literacy on suicide, not just people who are going through distress and thinking about help, but also family, friends and colleagues around them on how to show support and pick up changes in behaviour, changes in perhaps attitudes and perspectives on life. So, we are raising suicide literacy. Underlying all this is building up the research and data to support and inform our initiatives.

These things are in progress. We are working hard on those initiatives with our community partners and more importantly, I think, it is a reminder that it is a whole-of-society, whole-of-community effort.