Feelings of being unnecessary and loneliness. What pushes seniors toward suicidal thoughts?

- In 2025, the number of people who attempted suicide was slightly lower than in 2024, that is, this downward trend is visible. The number was less than 15,000 people. As for the number of suicides that ended in death, in 2025 we recorded a little less than in 2024, i.e. less than 5 thousand," said Insp. Robert Kumor, director of the Prevention Bureau of the Police Headquarters. The decrease also applies to the population of people over 60 years of age. However, as the police representative stressed, while in the general population the percentage of people who make a suicide attempt that ends in death is at about 32 percent, among seniors the percentage is at nearly 62 percent. 

During the team's meeting, conclusions were also presented from a study conducted by Danuta Sowinska, a suicidologist from the University of Gdansk. The study included 188 seniors from Pomerania (mainly Gdansk, Sopot, Tczew and Slupsk), and concerned the social determinants of suicidal behavior. The basic conclusion: the problem is real. - 13 percent of respondents admitted having had suicidal thoughts. 19 percent declared that they know a person in their environment after a suicide attempt. 11 percent have a person in their family who died as a result of suicide, the expert said.

Among the reasons for suicidal thoughts, seniors most often cited feelings of being unnecessary (29 percent), loneliness (25 percent), lack of purpose (20 percent), lack of money (20 percent), and the death of a loved one (20 percent).

The reason for the deterioration of a senior citizen's mental condition is sometimes retirement shock, that is, the change in status and routine due to retirement. - In the case of some people, their only interest was work, and as a result they were particularly vulnerable to the onset of retirement shock. That's why it's so important to ask seniors about hobbies, because interests prolong life.

One of the findings of the study also confirms that some elderly people experience - primarily from their loved ones - violence. Most often psychological and physical, but also economic. At the same time, it is worth remembering that the study was conducted among active seniors, it did not take into account (at least to a sufficient extent) those who are called "prisoners of the fourth floor", isolated, practically not leaving their apartments, and therefore more exposed, for example, to loneliness, a sense of abandonment or precisely the phenomenon of violence.

However, even active seniors face problems - such as digital and transportation exclusion and an information gap. Information about possible and available forms of activation or support does not reach them. Seniors often don't know who to turn to for help or are ashamed to admit that they need support. One way to counteract the alienation of the elderly is through neighborhood volunteering, but PCCs (early recognition of mental health crises) or mental health centers should have their role to play.