Karen Cummings to Government: Give our citizens hope

Sep 10, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Life is precious and therefore every person should be afforded the opportunity for self-development and the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to family, community, and the society.

Today, 10 September 2022, Guyana joins the rest of the world in observing World Suicide Prevention Day. The aim and purpose of this observance is to create awareness and educate the populace on suicide prevention so that tendencies and signs may be detected early and help, and treatment rendered carefully and confidentially before an individual approaches the dangerous threshold.

Death by suicide poses a significant public health challenge and contributes to premature deaths, morbidity, lost productivity, and health care costs. It affects all age groups, and during COVID-19 pandemic it has become known that there has been an increase among children who have contemplated suicide. Although the risk factors at the individual, relational, community, and societal levels are well documented, increased efforts are urgently needed to remove all barriers to persons needing and seeking prevention interventions. In our society the removal of the stigma associated with help seeking and with mental illness must be championed by our institutions and promoted by all our social organisations.

Additionally, family and friends would do well to reduce access to lethal means by persons at risk of suicide. Having safe storage practices to reduce access to pesticides particularly would be an effective way to making it more difficult for persons at risk of suicide to implement their plans.

The APNU/AFC Coalition calls on the Government:

To create and where necessary improve upon measures adopted by the previous Administration to safeguard the health and promote the well-being of our people. We are committed partners with a caring Administration intent on fashioning our society so that all our peoples could work, live, and play harmoniously and eliminate this scourge.
To install appropriate signs at high-risk areas to encourage persons seeking help. This year’s theme is captioned ‘Creating Hope Through Action’.

The APNU/AFC Coalition implores and hopes that the Government will strive to improve the lives of Guyanese especially those vulnerable citizens of low socio-economic status and in the low- and middle-income levels, persons who are unemployed, and in financial crises to reduce the risk of suicidal behaviour. The prevention of suicide must be a public health priority considering our small population and because caring is not political posturing, but sound public health policies driven by motivated health workers. An inter-sectoral approach is needed to stem this type of behavior and to create hope and reduce suicide mortality. Structural racism is a classified disease with consequences beyond our imagination and effects that will delay, if not deny, our developmental prospects. We cannot compartmentalize health and overall policies or health and politics for they are interwoven and inseparable.

Every life matters. Let us say YES to life and NO to suicide.

Regards,
Dr Karen Cummings
Shadow Minister of Health (APNU+AFC)

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