Dear Editor,
The Caribbean Voice notes an article in a section of the local media in which PAHO’s Dr Adu-Krow is quoted as saying that the suicide rate in Guyana has ‘plummeted to 20.6 per 100,000 people.’ Actually WHO figures indicate a rate of 30.6 and a global ranking of number two. Perhaps Dr Adu-Krow was misquoted.
Not that we’re not thrilled by the significant reduction from 44.2 in 2012 and a global ranking of number one, but we are bemused by the implication that this reduction is due to the work of the Government of Guyana (GoG). Actually, this reduction is due much more to the work of NGOs like The Caribbean Voice (TCV) and very little to GoG efforts.
In fact, TCV has an ongoing campaign organised and run by almost 70 volunteers in and out of Guyana. It is built on five pillars – training, information dissemination and awareness building, lobbying and advocacy, counselling interventions (over 300 cases in three years), and building stakeholders’ collaborations (such as with Annual National Anti-Violence Candlelight Vigil to mark World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept 10).
The programme includes five different workshops: youth & students, teachers, community outreach, train the trainer, and employees. Seven dedicated sub-groups in six regions (with plans to set up same in the other four regions), managed by a passionate leadership committee, ensure that our work is continual, ongoing, holistic, collaborative, and comprehensive.
Meanwhile, we commend doctors being trained in the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme [mhGAP], but WHO have actually strongly advocated for integration of mental health care into the current primary health care system, as critical to address mental health issues, including suicide.
Training of doctors is just the start of such a process, and by itself it has negligible impact. As WHO indeed pointed out, “Successful scaling up is the joint responsibility of governments, health professionals, civil society, communities, and families, with support from the international community. The essence of mhGAP is building partnerships for collective action”; in other words, an integrated health care system and concerted collaboration by all stakeholders.
The article goes on to talk about vaguely defined ‘suicide deterrent’ measures that we have heard about before. However, given that the Government rejected something as fundamental as decriminalizing attempted suicide because supporting the bill would have meant the Opposition would get credit, it explains quite clearly that Government’s actions are premised on gaining political mileage, rather than genuinely addressing suicide and mental health in general.
So we wonder whether that is why the Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Plans, drafted under the previous Government and subsequently fine-tuned by officials of the Health Ministry, have been shelved by the current Government.
Sincerely,
Annan Boodram
The Caribbean
Voice
