Suicide among highest cause of deaths

Sep 13, 2010 News

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– Minister Ramsammy
The scourge of suicide has had a devastating impact on the local society which ranks a menacing third when it comes to the loss of lives, closely trailing the death toll created by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, road deaths and follows homicide among people age 15 to 35. According to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, suicide is in fact a major public health problem for Guyana and for the Globe as a whole.
For this reason, he noted that the problem is not a “trivial thing that we are looking at.” As such, the Minister asserted that the Ministry of Health alone cannot address the problem. Accordingly, the Ministry has been partnering with various Ministries including Education, Labour, Human Services and Culture, Youth and Sports in order to deal with the matter of suicide. “We are also partnering with the private sector and the faith based organisations,” the Minister added.  But according to him, “We will not be able to prevent suicide by making suicide the issue…the real issues are all of the contributing factors.”

And though a ‘Follow-back’ Study is now being introduced locally to ascertain the primary causes for the act of suicide, it has already been revealed that issues such as domestic violence and sexual abuse among others throughout an individual’s life are important footprints along the way. “Therefore these are all issues that we have to address in our communities. I believe that these are issues that cannot be overcome unless we work together….The Ministry would like to highlight these issues and to say that it is not just viruses, bacteria, protozones and fungi it is not just drinking too much and eating too much and not exercising that bring death and disability to our people but it is also many social determinants.” These social determinants, Dr Ramsammy explained, would continue to impact on health significantly unless they are dealt with directly at the level of the community.
And many are trained to deal with the problem at the level of the church and other social entities within communities countrywide.  “We must recognise that many people would not want to initiate certain discussions with another person face to face and sometime they need encouragement to begin to talk to someone, for that reason we have established the crisis hotline.”
The Health Ministry’s crisis hotline was launched on Friday last and is intended to ensure that everyone who feels that they need to talk in some anonymous way will be able to do so using the hotline service.  Through that mechanism the Minister said, persons could be encouraged to seek further help and to provide more personal type of assistance. The crisis hotline will be conducted and operated by trained personnel, several of whom have been trained by experts out of Canada. The technology utilised will be similar to that used in the United States and Canada that will help the Ministry to access immediate help. But according to Minister Ramsammy, it is unfortunate that the technology to make the hotline service fully operational has not yet been installed. However, he noted that the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company has been working with the Ministry to install same. “We expect that within two weeks that will be functional. Still we are beginning to introduce the hotline now so that by the time all of the technologies are in place it is a well known service around the communities.”
In Guyana most suicidal deaths occur among the age group between 15 and 44, which according to the Minister has major consequences on the country’s productivity and services and by extension on the health indices. “When people die so young our life expectancy will drop. As long as it reaches a certain level it means that it will have an impact. We have seen  that in Guyana, we have seen it in other countries. In Guyana approximately 25 persons for every 100,000 die because of suicide globally the figure has been reported about 16 per 100,000.”
And as part of the effort to put a dent in the incidence of suicide, the Ministry will this year accelerate measures to better control pesticides. According to the Minister, there are pesticides that people use in their homes which are really potential weapon; it is used as self-inflicted injuries that cause death. “I know that every family says that their family members would not do that then it happens therefore we need to make sure that we take care in how we store the pesticides so we are encouraging families to ensure that no one person can get to the pesticide by themselves.”
Another pillar of the Health Ministry’s attack on suicide will be the substance abuse programme, since according to the Minister, a significant percent of the persons who commit suicide often shows evidence of alcohol use. Thus the issue of alcohol abuse is being tackled, the Minister said adding that there are substance abuse programmes that are being streamlined.
The Ministry is also preparing to introduce a prevention substance abuse programme which is expected to help halt the problem of substance abuse. That programme, the Minister said, will see persons being trained based on international standards and they will be certified to operate programmes. It is anticipated that religious organisations will fully embrace the venture, the Minister related in the quest of halting the national suicide problem.

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