Latest update December 22nd, 2024 4:10 AM
Latest News
- Each household in Guyana lost $1.7M in 2024 from Govt’s refusal to apply 65% windfall taxes on Exxon’s excess profits
- Citizens file Court action against Exxon’s 7th oil project
- Pope calls Gaza airstrikes ‘cruelty’ after Israeli minister’s criticism
- Brutus admits traveling to Lethem
- Toy gun bandit shot dead, accomplice escapes
English media highlights Guyana’s suicide problems as “desperate measures”
‘When it comes to people taking their own lives, Guyana leads the world,’ was the subtitle that followed a suicide headline ‘Desperate measures.’ A London-based newspaper, ‘The Economist,’ has highlighted that when it comes to suicide, “Guyana clearly has a big problem,”
In an analytic piece done on the country, the article pointed out that, the Guyana Foundation, -a recently created non-governmental organization- released findings from a study based on in-depth interviews by Serena Coultress, a student at the Global Health programme at Maastricht University in the Netherlands which talks of hopelessness and frustration among men who are unable to fulfill their expected role as providers, and who turn to domestic violence, alcohol abuse and, sometimes, suicide.
The article noted that, “men everywhere are more likely to kill themselves than women are, but local ratios are heavily skewed towards males. “Many drink weedkiller, a particularly distressing and protracted death. Most live in rural areas and are middle-aged or elderly; despite heavy media coverage of teenage suicides.”
suicide
“The numbers show that Indo-Guyanese people are more at risk from suicide than Afro-Guyanese,” but that, Coultress said, “may simply be because most of the rural population is of Indian origin.”
It was pointed out by a psychiatrist who heads the department of clinical medical sciences at the University of the West Indies Trinidad campus, Professor Gerard Hutchinson that chemistry has a role to play in suicidal tendencies. “Guyanese agricultural workers and farmers may be overusing organophosphate herbicides and insecticides, which international studies suggest can lead to impulsive suicidal behaviour.”
World Health Organisation (WHO) reports have shown that Guyana’s suicide rate has fallen by 8.5 percent since 2000, but much more needs to be done. Training workshops have been held to help identify people at risk, but there has been little follow-up activity, it was stated.
“There is no functioning telephone helpline for people in distress, although the police have announced plans to set one up using civilian counsellors. Attempted suicide is a criminal offence in Guyana, but the law is rarely used, but its existence helps set a pattern of stigma that the country can ill afford.”
The American University of Research, in collaboration with the Caribbean Voice Incorporated, other NGOs and the government held a walk yesterday to increase knowledge of suicide prevention. Local health workers have recognized the need for decisive measures addressing the country’s suicide problem. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, was quoted in this newspaper as describing the nation’s current suicide situation as ‘bad.’
WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan had noted that the 2012 report which ranks Guyana’s suicide rate as the highest in the world, “is a call for action to address a large public health problem which has been shrouded in taboo for far too long.”
It was noted that reducing access to means of suicide is one way to lessening deaths, but other effective measures such as responsible reporting of suicide in the media; avoiding language that sensationalizes suicide, and avoiding explicit description of death methods can be used.
“Follow-up care by health workers through regular contact and phone or home visits, for people who have attempted suicide, together with provision of community support, are essential, because people who have already attempted suicide are at the greatest risk of trying again,” the report continued.
WHO recommended that countries involve a range of government departments in developing a comprehensive coordinated response to suicide.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Policy-making by neglect
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The ease with which Bharrat Jagdeo, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party... more
Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The year 2024 has underscored a grim reality: poverty continues to be an unyielding... more
Weekend Cartoon
