The goal of a program launched in 2020 is to reduce the risk of suicide among men.

Buddy Up was developed by the Centre for Suicide Prevention in response to Canadian suicide statistics.

Akash Asif, Director for Operations and Strategy with the Centre, tells us more.

“In Canada, we know that 3 out of 4 suicides are male, specifically middle aged men die by suicide more than anyone else. That includes young people and women.”  

In 2018, of the 38-hundred suicides in the country,  almost 29-hundred were male.   Of those, men aged 45 to 65 represented 1125 deaths.

Asif says men often refrain from sharing their negative feelings because of traditional norms that make those feelings seem unmasculine.

Learn more about the Buddy Up program by going to buddyup.ca.   You can also listen to Thompson Today this afternoon at 12:40 and 5:10.