…“We need to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper” – The Caribbean Voice
By Shemuel Fanfair
Over the years, many stakeholders have noted the alarmingly high rate of suicides in Guyana and have advocated for its reduction. In today’s (Monday) sitting of the National Assembly, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament Dr Vindhya Persaud is expected to move several motions, calling on Government to employ measures to address the scourge.
Among Persaud’s motions, she wants government to implement “the comprehensive 2014 Mental Health Strategic Plan and National Suicide Prevention Plan 2015-2020.
PPP/C Member of Parliament, Dr Vindhya Persaud
Other aspects of her presentation will focus on ensuring funds are allocated to: “Provide the financial, human, technical and physical infrastructure needed to treat mental health.”
Dr Persaud is expected to petition for the Public Health Ministry to ensure that the 24-hour mental health hotline is re-established with the requisite healthcare providers and to implement measures to reduce people’s access to poisonous substances.
The motions come in light of two recent suicides, where Walter Layne, 50, hung himself at his Lot 5175 Central Amelia’s Ward, Linden, home and Merissa Singh, 16, of Number 2 Village, East Canje, Berbice, who overdosed on several pills.
Dr Persaud has noted that the incidence of suicide has been “consistently increasing” in Guyana, with “the younger members of the population taking or attempting to take their lives.”
The statistics garnered from studies have shown that for the last decade a person takes his life every 1.8 to 2.4 days in Guyana.
“Guyana’s suicide rate is ranked in the top 10 causes of death for the last several decades. In the age group 15 to 24, suicide ranks between 1 and 3 in terms of top causes of death. There is one attempt every 5 hours in Guyana, whereas in the world there is an estimated one suicide attempt almost every second,” the MP’s presentation will highlight.
It will be observed that there is a lack of access to mental health services in the country as there are only “three full time psychiatrists” who are based in Georgetown and New Amsterdam.
The presentation to the National Assembly will also point out that there are, “Insufficient counsellors in the education system to provide support to students”.
Meanwhile, managing director of suicide prevention group, The Caribbean Voice (TCV), Bibi Ahmad, recently told this publication that her organisation is still working to ensure there is a reduction of suicides.
“Right now our focus is building persons’ self-esteem, we are presently doing outreaches to various communities, we were doing through the school system, but now that school is in recess, we are doing it in the communities at the moment and to follow up from those outreaches, whereby we found that there are lots of teenagers who are depressed and attempted suicide,” TCV’s managing director recently noted.
She also told Guyana Times that her organisation has been dealing with many social issues in the communities: “We try to connect with other agencies to get them help, the focus is not only on suicide, we are focusing on mental health and the related issues that surround it.”
She stated that while the response to TCV’s campaigns have been widely successful, more work needs to done on awareness for the warning signs of persons who may be contemplating suicide.
“Some people are not aware of the various warning signs and we need to educate people more on the signs,” Ahmad observed.
Some of these signs she noted, include: expressed statements on wanting to die or to kill oneself; a sudden increase in use of alcohol or drugs; sleeping too little or too much; being withdrawn or feeling isolated; displaying extreme mood swings; suddenly giving away or selling off personal items.
She echoed the sentiment that more should be done to advocate for mental health awareness: “It has to be done at a community level…we have to get more community leaders, religious leaders like the priests, pandits, and imams; we need to actually be our brother’s and sister’s keeper. You’re not seeing or hearing from your neighbour, check, people have to reach out and help one another, that’s the only way we can do it because we are a small country and to have a high rate of suicide is not good,” posited Ahmad.
Meanwhile, the National Suicide Prevention Plan will enable collaboration among Government ministries; international partners; non-governmental organisations (NGOs); faith-based organisations (FBOs) and other stakeholders.
The proposed activities will be aligned to one of four strategic action areas: risk factors reduction, health promotion and suicide prevention; reducing access to the means of suicide; improving health systems’ response to suicidal behaviour; and strengthening surveillance and research on suicide in Guyana.
