Older men and suicide

Isolation and loneliness is the scourge of our later years but older men seem to have a profound struggle to create social connections and while there may be several reasons for this high suicide rate, some Ontario men aged 80 and older see no reason to live.

We hear one man's personal experience and his discovery of Men's Sheds, an organization that helps men get socially connected. A PhD candidate at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University explains the incredible value of 'generativity" in our later years and Dr. David Conn, a psychiatrist at Baycrest Centre, helps us understand suicide in older men and why it doesn't have to end this way.

Guests: Alan Marrison of Men's Sheds; Eireann O'Dea, PhD, Simon Fraser University and Dr. David Conn, Psychiatrist at Baycrest Centre.

The full transcript of this episode is available in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or on the episode page at thestar.com/podcasts/how-to-live-100-or-die-trying

This episode was produced by Moira Welsh, Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Matthew Hearn and Sean Pattendon. It was produced with the support of a journalism fellowship from The Gerontological Society of America, The Journalists Network on Generations and The Silver Century Foundation.