The cost of suicide mortality in New Brunswick, 1996

Suicide is a major public health problem in Canada. Suicide deaths affect society by consuming both human lives and economic resources. The present study estimates the economic impact of suicide deaths that occurred in New Brunswick in 1996, using the human capital approach. For the 94 suicide deaths reported, direct costs for health care services, autopsies, funerals and police investigations were $535,158.32. Indirect costs, which estimate the value of lost productivity due to premature death, had the largest economic value, of $79,353,354.56. The mean total cost estimate per suicide death in 1996 was $849,877.80. Although the most significant impact of a suicide death remains the loss of a human life, these results indicate that the economic cost of this public health tragedy in New Brunswick is also great. To our knowledge, this report provides the first complete cost-of-suicide analysis performed in a Canadian province.