Health service worried about suicide among Amsterdam young people; Up 40% in four years

Health service GGD is concerned about the increasing number of young people taking their own lives in Amsterdam. In four years, the number of suicides among people under 30 in Amsterdam increased by 40 percent, Parool reports based on figures from Formatus, the GGD’s forensic medicine registration network. Of the 120 suicides in Amsterdam in 2023, 26 were under 30, compared to 18 in 2019.

“Every young person who commits suicide is a worrying fact,” Lyna Polikar, the suicide prevention project leader at GGD, told Parool. There is no one clear cause for the increase, she said. “But psychological problems, persistent pressure to perform at school, financial problems, and social media are contributing factors.”

The lack of capacity in healthcare also plays a role in the rising number of suicides. “It doesn’t help that the waiting times for treatment for serious psychological problems are so long,” Polikar told the newspaper. “What we can do is focus on prevention in certain risk groups by training people who come into contact with risk groups at work.”

The GGD considers young people from the LGBTQIA+ community a risk group for suicidal tendencies, for example. “They experience more aggression because they are ‘different’ in the eyes of others,” Poilikar said.

“We must also continue training for care coordinators, teachers, mentors, and others who see suicidal young people in schools and universities,” she said. “Young people learn all kinds of things at school, but they do not receive lessons on how to deal with disappointments in life. Education about this is important to prevent suicide.”

The increase in suicides among Amsterdam’s young people is in line with the national trend. In 2023, 300 people under 30 took their own lives in the Netherlands, 40 percent more than in 2019, according to the Commission for the Current Dutch Suicide Registration (CANS).