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Forever lamenting suicides

May 14, 2009 Editorial

Once again in the month of May, around Arrival Day, the Minister of Health has chosen to pronounce on the public health issue of suicide in Guyana. As we surmised last year, it was probably because Indians constitute over seventy-five percent of the victims annually – and that this preponderance has been maintained since the days of indentureship.

This time he announced that Region Six is the suicide capital of Guyana accounting for forty percent of the approximately two hundred cases we suffer annually.
There is nothing wrong with statistics – they are to be welcomed since it may allow the authorities to better deal with the scourge. And it is to this most crucial latter issue that we wish to elaborate.
According to our report, the Minister announced that next month the Ministry will further enhance the mental health programme and will also conclude the anti-suicide strategy.
Training will commence for a number of persons in dealing with the issue of suicide. We find this announcement very disheartening.

Last year, we noted that the Minister was elaborating on the steps that had been taken since the National Committee for Suicide Prevention (NCSP) had been launched the year before (2007).
The NCSP’s objectives were announced: to reduce premature deaths due to suicide; lower the rate of suicidal behaviour; decrease the harmful aftermath and stigma associated with suicidal behaviour and the traumatic effect of suicide on family and friends and promote awareness that suicide is preventable and train more persons in recognising mental health problems.
What was alarming was that after a full year it was announced – in the future tense – that the NCSP had to in order to achieve those goals, “the committee has to develop a strategy for the control and prevention of suicide.”

It made one wonder if there were no strategy why then the rather detailed programme that was announced simultaneously. Now once again in 2009, we are hearing that the “strategy” is still not completed.
We can only repeat ruefully what we pointed out last year: “We say this against the background of the same Minister back in 2001 – a full seven years ago – making almost the identical comments when he launched a National Committee for the Prevention of Suicidal Behaviour (NCPSC).
“It was promised that an anti-suicide strategy was to have been drafted then. Most of the Ministries, agencies, NGO’s and experts who had been involved with the launch of the NCPSC are now members of the new body.

“The work of that committee had been based on a study that had been conducted by Dr Frank Beckles. We believe that the work of the last committee had progressed to the extent of establishing some centres in Berbice to deal with suicide in that county since reports had suggested that its incidence was greatest there.
“If we are to make progress in the present to get a handle on this public health menace in our society, it would be of some benefit for the Ministry to conduct and release a study of why the initial effort evidently fizzled.

“It would be of interest to learn what exactly was that strategy, why it failed, and why, if the new body was formed a year ago, no work was done to come up with a new strategy.
It was also reported that at the briefing last week, the Co-Chairman of NCSP, Shri Prakash Gossai, Special Assistant to President Bharrat Jagdeo, “advocated that all religious leaders should spread the message about the value of life.
“And believes that, through that strategy, the issue of suicide will be curbed, towards the final goal of eradication.”

While we believe that religious institutions have a very vital role to play in dealing with suicide, we hope that the new strategy will encompass a somewhat wider scope of intervention.”
Up to this point, there has been no report of why the previous strategy failed. More interestingly, there has not even been any mention of the NCSP.
We guess that next year, around Arrival Day, we will have some more nuggets about suicides. We hope we will finally have a strategy.

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