17.01.2024 – 14:15
Federal Medical Association
Berlin (ots)
The President of the German Medical Association, Dr. Klaus Reinhardt, calls on the parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag to provide significantly more funding for suicide prevention in Germany in the 2024 federal budget. “Together with many experts in suicide prevention, the German Medical Association is very concerned that suicide prevention is apparently not sufficiently taken into account in the draft for the 2024 federal budget. On the contrary, it does not even seem guaranteed that the current actors and structures will be fully retained.”
At the beginning of July 2023, the German Bundestag called for financial support for existing suicide prevention structures and offers in a cross-party resolution passed with an overwhelming majority. In addition, a comprehensive strategy for a sustainable expansion of suicide prevention in Germany is to be developed by mid-2024. “This not only requires a much more intensive exchange with the medical profession and other actors in suicide prevention than we have experienced so far. It also requires sufficient financial resources, otherwise the best strategy will come to nothing,” emphasizes Reinhardt.
The President of the German Medical Association reminds us that in Germany someone takes their own life about every 60 minutes. The number of suicide attempts is ten to twenty times higher. These numbers alone, which have recently increased again, justify the need for greater efforts in suicide prevention.
The topic is particularly important in light of the debate about the legal regulation of assisted suicide in Germany. Reinhardt: “Such a regulation is necessary to end the current, disorderly situation. However, a law on suicide assistance must be combined with a prior strengthening of suicide prevention. Only in this way can we do equal justice to the right to self-determination and the interest in protection of those affected. This is also why 2024 should not be a lost year for suicide prevention in Germany. As a budget legislator, the German Bundestag has the power to prevent this.”
Background:
On average, more than 25 people die of suicide every day in Germany. In 2022, the number of suicides exceeded 10,000 (exactly 10,119) for the first time in eight years. This corresponds to a rate of 12.1 per 100,000 inhabitants and an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the previous year. This means that more people die from suicide than from traffic accidents, murder, AIDS/HIV and illegal drugs combined (Federal Statistical Office, 2023).
A broad professional alliance with the participation of the German Medical Association has already created the conditions for the development of a suicide prevention law in 2022 with well-founded recommendations.
Press contact:
Federal Medical Association
Politics and Communications Department
Herbert-Lewin-Platz 1
10623 Berlin
Tel.: (030) 4004 56 700
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.baek.de
Original content from: German Medical Association, transmitted by news aktuell