Latest update February 20th, 2025 12:39 PM
Adequate mental health services key to suicide prevention
Although concerns have surfaced about the rate of suicide deaths in Guyana, methods are underway to curb this unwanted trend.
Guyana has one of the highest suicide rates in the Caribbean, with Barbados following closely.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, said that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is working to address mental health issues, which are often the root cause of suicide.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud
“What we have found is that there is no specific cause for which a person will take his own life. However, based on our analysis an underlining health issue is that persons, who are unable to cope with psychological stresses in their life, would usually resort to suicide. “People crumble under the various pressures of economic problems, issues with interpersonal relationships, peer pressure, especially if they are suffering from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety psychosis or neurosis.
“They need medical treatment which may include, psychotherapy and even pharmaceuticals,” Dr Persaud said.
The health sector is working to address the lack of certified psychologists and workers to provide adequate mental health services.
“Although the Ministry of Health does not have a psychologist to provide this sort of intervention, evaluating and counseling service, we are looking at introducing that category of worker to our caliber of health professionals so that we‘ll be able to address mental health and provide suitable psychotherapy.
“We are also trying to get social workers employed under the Ministry of Health for this purpose. There is a need for training of all categories of health workers, so as to build capacity to respond when persons need certain issue addressed. We also want to have trained personnel available to community based outreaches.”
The Chief Medical Officer explained that, under the new health division strategy “Health Vision 20/20” the MOH will place fresh emphasis on suicide prevention. The strategy will cover a seven year period.
“Under our new strategy, we want to join forces with other stakeholders, the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Home Affairs, Human Services Ministry and the Ministry of Education to put together a comprehensive education programme, to address head on the concerns about suicides in Guyana.”
“We are finalizing health vision 20/20 ….which will take us from 2013 to 2020. It is divided into two parts. The first part is a focus on rapid acceleration to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
“The second part will be a five-year programme.”
The previous, health sector strategy 2008 -2012 identified suicide as a major priority to be addressed.
The CMO told Kaieteur News that steps had been taken to introduce a coding system for analysis into deaths by suicides and attempted suicides.
Suicide by ingesting poison is most common, in comparison to suicide by hanging, and other methods. Suicide deaths are most prevalent in Region Six. Most deaths involved the ingestion of pesticide, which is easily accessible to households; poison that is not adequately labeled or stored.
According to Dr Persaud, the prevention programme requires the involvement of other agencies.
“We are working closely with the poison control board under the Ministry of Agriculture. A representative of the Ministry of Health, sits on that board, which handles the regulation and control of the poisonous substances across Guyana.
“What we have found is that the importers of these substances need to have available in addition to the pesticides, the antidotes.”
Dr. Persaud, explained that the MOH had taken into consideration the introduction of poison control centers at the major health facilities across the country.
This will enable a quicker access and suitable response of health workers to such cases, not only for persons who may ingest it with the intent but also for those who may suffer accidental exposure to the poisonous substances.”
This year, World Suicide Prevention Day was celebrated on September 10, under the theme “Stigma: A Major Barrier for Suicide Prevention”.
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