opinion: ‘silent crisis’ among men getting worse across canada

“there’s a silent crisis in men’s health that’s killing men in staggering numbers,” said prof. john ogrodniczuk , director of the psychotherapy program in the psychiatry department at ubc. “it’s not cancer, it’s not heart disease, it’s not liver disease — it’s suicide. when you look at the numbers, it’s like ‘wow.’ ”

the suicide rate grows more shocking among certain male subgroups, particularly those who are indigenous , homosexual, transgendered, in the military, middle-aged or going through divorce, according to peer-reviewed research by ogrodniczuk, david kiely and others.

climbing male suicide rates also intersect in many ways with the opioid crisis, in which deaths have risen during covid in b.c. and across the country, said ogrodniczuk, who directs a website for men struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, called heads up guys .

ogrodniczuk’s observations fit with those of a small cohort of thinkers appalled by the way many less-educated, working-class americans and canadians are dying rapidly from so-called “deaths of despair,” characterized by suicide and chronic alcohol and drug use. their plight is captured by economists anne case and angus deacon in the book, deaths of despair and the future of capitalism.

while canadian men are three times more likely to take their own lives than women, the rate shoots up further among first nations males. a  recent statistics canada report found 30 first nation males per 100,000 are killing themselves,  compared to 12 in 100,000 non-indigenous males (and four in 100,000 non-indigenous females).

in one of the dozens of studies ogrodniczuk has taken part in, gay men were found to be six times more likely than heterosexual men to take their lives. transgender men were five to eight times more likely. rates were also exceptionally high among men in the military and in middle age. canadian-born males are much more likely to suicide than immigrant males.

a new paper by ogrodniczuk et al has found that covid-19 has been devastating for many men , possibly increasing the likelihood of suicide. it discovered 30 per cent of canadian males in relationships who have sought help admitted they were more likely during the pandemic to be perpetrators of abuse (primarily verbally), while 27 per cent said they had also been victims of such abuse.

the construction industry, in which men make up 19 out of 20 workers, is also being clobbered. chris gardner, president of the iacpa, recently wrote that “more than 50 per cent of employed people who have died of opioid overdoses in b.c. worked in construction …  the risk of suicide for a construction worker is seven times the average.”

b.c. psychological association’s renewed effort to convince the b.c. government to join other provinces and include therapy by highly trained psychologists as part of the medical services plan.