Suicide rate for elderly men is alarming

The North Carolina Injury & Violence Prevention Branch, part of the State Division of Public Health, has just released the 2015 N.C Suicide Prevention Plan. A related report from this branch, “Elder Suicide in North Carolina,” presented some alarming data. From 2008 to 2011, 905 North Carolinians age 65 and older died as a result of violence, with 741 of them committing suicide. More than 80 percent of these elder suicides were men-mostly white men who used firearms.