Suicide is a global public health concern: human activities and rapid urbanisation influence the environments in which people live, and this may impact on health, including mental health. In particular, a recent article published on The Lancet Planetary Health by M.Helbich and colleagues, focuses on the association between natural environments and population suicide risk. Authors studied how green or blue spaces may influence suicide rate in association with many socio-economic factors and provide references on previous studies about how  suicide-methods access may contribute to suicidal behaviors.

LINK: Natural environments and suicide

Moreover, “suicide hotspots” should be considered among the environmental factors that may influence suicide rate in a specific context. Several articles have been published about this topic in different countries: on PloS One, in 2017, it was published a Swiss study that compares different suicide prevention measures in jumping hotspots; an Austrian study (2017) focuses on railway suicide, studying clustering phenomena, and particular events occuring in proximity to psychiatric institutions in order to help further prevention strategies.  

LINK: Comparing Different Suicide Prevention Measures at Bridges and Buildings: Lessons We Have Learned from a National Survey in Switzerland

LINK: Suicides on the Austrian railway network: hotspot analysis and effect of proximity to psychiatric institutions.

If you want to know more about suicide hotspots you can visit our post about it! 

Natural environments and suicide. Chang, Shu-Sen et al.
The Lancet Planetary Health , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , e109 – e110

Hemmer A, Meier P, Reisch T (2017) Comparing Different Suicide Prevention Measures at Bridges and Buildings: Lessons We Have Learned from a National Survey in Switzerland.
PLoS ONE 12(1): e0169625. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0169625

Strauss MJ, Klimek P, Sonneck G, Niederkrotenthaler T. Suicides on the Austrian railway network: hotspot analysis and effect of proximity to psychiatric institutions. Royal Society Open Science. 2017;4(3):160711. doi:10.1098/rsos.160711.

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