That’s enough sunshine for now…
Timelord - the stats here will help you with your question:
https://researchbriefings.files.parl...9/CBP-7749.pdf
In particular, these 2 graphs:
From the top graph, it would seem that over the past 40 years the numbers have been stable - however the population has grown. So it’s the bottom graph that we need to consider. As a rate of suicide per 100,000 of UK population then we are getting better. But, there is a real issue here that needs to be put out there. Many of the females of our species suffer terribly from Menopause, and it is often quoted that the males are “lucky” not to suffer. However, there is such a thing as Andropause and often that starts to link to suicide for males. Much work is being done on understanding Andropause, but the suicide statistics are telling from the graph below. Males are 3 times more likely to commit suicide than females. Further, 40 years ago it was 2 times, and then females have reduced their rate by 50% but males by just 17%. Why is that? There is a school of thought that males are struggling to adapt to the world where their role models are being forcibly changed and many are struggling to cope with it. Further, the requirement to talk openly about mental health to get the help you need these days may also be against the way that males are ‘wired up’. So, in effect, by telling males to be open and “talk about it” or “it’s ok to not be ok”, it may be having a detrimental effect. Females now outnumber males in medical school. In the 1960s females in medical school numbered 30%, by 1980 it was 40% and now there are 43,000 female GPs compared to 35,000 male GPs. Now, if males didn’t like discussing about being “not ok”, they like it even less (rightly or wrongly) to do that in front of a GP of the opposite sex. So, the male may suffer in silence feeling unable to speak to their GP because of gender preference - as I say, rightly or wrongly. I know my wife and many female colleagues feel uneasy about going to male GPs on some matters, so this gender preference most definitely exists.
So, it goes back to my point earlier. There is no easy fix around all of this and we all need to manage it in our own way using the tools provided. It’s a wicked problem with a complex solution that will not fix it for good.