Health Ministry building capacity for suicide prevention

Jan 19, 2010 News

As the issue of suicide continues to gain the attention of the Health Ministry, a capacity building workshop for suicide prevention in Guyana will commence today at the Regency Suites hotel.
The workshop is being held in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry.
Given the seriousness of the suicide issue in Guyana, the workshop aims to strengthen the health sector’s capacity to provide mental health care services.
This will be done by enhancing suicide risk assessment and risk management competencies among existing health workers in primary and specialty mental health care services and by building gatekeeper and support capacity within communities for persons at risk for suicide.
The workshop also aims to develop capacity to gain an understanding of the confluence of risk and protective factors associated with suicide and suicide behaviours in individuals and groups in Guyana.
The session will also develop a multi-sectoral suicide prevention response through the creation of community gatekeepers and the enhancement of primary care and specialty mental health service capacity to provide appropriate assessment, treatment and management for persons at risk for suicide.
Last September, the Ministry of Health trained 25 peer educators to be adequately fit to deal with suicide prevention, while 27 health care workers underwent training to be stationed at youth friendly health centers.
During the training sessions, the peer educators and health care workers discussed suicide prevention, counseling of people, domestic violence and the use of alcohol, while they were also trained to recognise depression in people.
Recently, a Regional Suicide Prevention workshop was held by the Ministry of Health at the Pegasus Hotel. It was aimed to develop greater awareness of the problem among health professionals and civil society.
For the last seven years, the Health Ministry has elevated suicide prevention as a priority public health issue, since it was recognised that it is an important contributor to premature death in Guyana.
There is no evidence to indicate that there is an increase in suicide deaths. The Health Ministry sees between 150 and 200 suicide deaths per year.
While the majority of women fail in their attempt to take their own lives, there are over 500 attempted suicide cases in Guyana on an annual basis. So far, there have been 250 attempted suicides in the country at the end of September 2009.
At this point in time, the Health Ministry cannot release the actual figures on the amount of persons who committed suicide for this year, as they are still in the process of verifying and confirming death certificates, since not all certificates reveal the truth of what the person actually died from.

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Health Ministry building capacity for suicide prevention

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