Studies of the link between race and health problems are abundant.

African Americans are disproportionately affected by diabetes compared to the general popuilation.

When a woman  of Jewish descent becomes pregnant, obstetricians test for Tay-Sachs disease.

And white men suffer from higher suicide rates than any other racial group in Illinois.

Extensive studies have been made tracing the role of race, diabetes and Tay-Sachs. Yet, few studies or organizations appear to address the issue of high suicide rates and white men.

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center provides materials and case studies to  suicide prevention hotlines and mental health facilities. While the resource center provides guides on their website to deal with suicide within American minority groups—American Indians and Alaskan Natives, Black Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans—they do not provide a race-specific fact sheet for a high-risk group, white males.

Nationwide, non-Hispanic American Indians have the highest suicide rate, with non-Hispanic white men close behind. Illinois’ low American Indian population does not reflect the national trend.

Experts have addressed the difference in suicide rates by gender. Men complete suicide four times more than women, according to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website.

Suicide rates are higher among men, even though women attempt suicide twice as much as men, because men use more lethal means, said prevention specialist Katherine Wootten of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. Also, men are less likely to engage in help-seeking behavior when they recognize they have a problem.

 “There’s a general stigma around mental illness and an added layer of being a man,” she said. “It’s less acceptable to seek help because of social norms.”

Dr. Carl C. Bell, professor of psychiatry and public health at the University of Chicago, said  it is important to look at age-specific rates among white men. Rates are higher among white men who are 55 years and older, he said.

While noting the lack of reliable medical research, Bell said a theory about social and economic change causing suicide might apply. This type of suicide happens when people do not fit into roles others expect them to fulfill.

“When people age, they lose their spot, if they were once at the top of their game,” he said.

Bruce Engle, a 70-year-old white male and program manager at Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide, helps families cope with the loss of loved ones. LOSS most often deals with white families, he said.

Engle said he encounters stories of white men who had lost their job or were stricken with disabilities and became depressed.

“We’ve been taught to not show our feelings and emotions. White men are reluctant to be evaluated or see a therapist. This reluctance is ingrained within our culture.”

Experts explain high suicide rates among white men by illustrating factors that keep suicides rates low in minority communities.

“If you speak to African Americans about suicide, they will tell you it’s a sign of weakness, not assertiveness. It’s seen as shameful,” said Dr. David Shaffer, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Columbia University.

“There’s lots of weight given in white liberal cultures to free choice. African Americans tend to be more conservative in beliefs.”

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Black American fact sheet said that “beliefs about suicide may act as a protective factor. Religious communities condemn suicide while secular attitudes regard suicide as unacceptable and a behavior of white culture, alien to black culture.”

Vernellia Randall, a professor at the Institute on Race, Health Care and the Law, University of Dayton School of Law, said that while African Americans have lower suicide rates, they have higher homicide rates.

 “Consider homicide and suicide together. When some people encounter stress they can no longer handle, they turn to violence. Some people turn the violence on themselves and we call that suicide. Some people turn the violence against other people and we call that homicide.

“It’s about a cultural norm. In the black community, it is not that turning violence outward is acceptable, it’s that turning it inward is more unacceptable.”

Rigid social systems are protective factors, Shaffer said.

“If you compare belonging to a group with fundamentalist beliefs, you get a lower rate because of tight social-support networks,” he said.

Shaffer cited Muslims, Evangelicals and Jews as having  low suicide rates worldwide.

Though, differences in rates are beginning to diminish as cultural differences diminish, he said.