It's estimated that thousands of children lose a parent to suicide each year but we don't know exactly how many as nobody counts them. Without this vital data, policymakers are blind to the scale of the issue and lack the insight to develop a coherent plan to mitigate the risks to affected children.
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A 2010 study by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center found that those who lose a parent to suicide in childhood are twice as likely to be hospitalised due to depression, and three times as likely to also take their own lives compared to the wider population. To break this chain of poor mental health and increased suicide risk in those who experience parental suicide, the Government urgently needs to quantify the scale of the need. This could inform improvements to the way children left behind are taken care of. These vulnerable children need to be counted and supported.