Suicide: Understanding and Ending a National Tragedy

by John Bateson

An urgent call to action on a rising—and preventable—trend.

Each year in the United States alone, nearly 50,000 individuals die by suicide; more than 1.2 million others attempt it. John Bateson, former executive director of a suicide prevention center, examines this national tragedy from multiple angles while debunking common myths, sharing demographic data, and identifying risk factors and warning signs. This book provides essential information about the current landscape surrounding suicide in the United States as well as strategies to prevent further tragedy.

Bateson emphasizes that the rise in suicide and attempted suicide is not only a mental health issue affecting individuals but also an urgent problem for society at large. He discusses suicide in parks, prisons, and the military, as well as assisted suicide, suicide by cop, and murder-suicide. In particular, he details the stark relationship among guns, drugs, jump sites, and suicide, focusing on one of the most effective ways to prevent suicide—restricting access to lethal means. In addition to presenting practical information for identifying people at risk of suicide, Bateson details important steps that individuals, businesses, and the government can take to end this public health problem.

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2024

About the author

For 16 years I was executive director of a nationally-certified crisis intervention and suicide prevention center in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have also been executive director of three university-run counseling centers and assistant director of a two-county social service agency. Three of my books--"The Last and Greatest Battle" (Oxford University Press, 2015), "The Final Leap" (University of California Press, 2012), and "Building Hope" (Praeger Press, 2008)--are related to this work. My latest book, "The Education of a Coroner," just came out in August 2017 from Scribner.

Reviews

[Cheyenne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everybody thinks they are an expert on suicide. I could not finish this book because it is full of useless statistics. Learning that suicide and suicide attempts cost about $58 billion a year but 97% of that is from loss of productivity made me understand that, in this book, capitalism is more important than the lived experience. We can restrict access to lethal means all day but what do we do with the human suffering that causes these thoughts to begin with? Can we truly understand anything about suicide through cold statistics? Suicide "experts" are all convinced that if we are not seeing suicide, we cured the problem. Suicide is not the problem - it is a symptom of humans concluding their life is not worth living!! Suicide prevention should start much earlier than the individual standing on a ledge.