I took a training class last week that discussed the incidence of suicide among emergency service workers. A couple of difficult statistics stood out in my mind:

1) Fire fighters are twice as likely to die by suicide then in a job related death

2) Police officers are three times more likely to die by suicide vs. being shot and killed by a criminal

3) Emergency service workers are ten times more likely to attempt suicide then the general population

4) 37% of emergency service workers have seriously contemplated suicide.

Clearly the stress and pressure of different professions play a role in the mental health of individuals. There have been numerous studies that have examined what impact someone's job has on their risk for suicide. It is known that certain high stress jobs have an unusually high suicide rate. When you also factor in that the the overall suicide rate has gone up over 30% in the last decade, there is a serious crisis across all professions.