Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, which kicks off World Suicide Prevention Week. But for us in Guyana, it ought to be “Guyana Suicide Prevention Year”. Over the last decades, we have seen a gradual increase in the awareness of suicide as a national scourge, especially after we became tagged as the country with the highest of suicide rate which was highlighted on several international media outlets.
Rather ghoulishly, it was the second time in the last 50 years that we received global notice: the first was being Jim Jones’ largest mass suicide event in the world.
But now that the awareness has been achieved, is it not past time that we have a national comprehensive programme to address the problem? The theme this year is “Working Together to Prevent Suicide” which is very apt exhortation since while as a mental health issue, the Government must take a lead; the entire society will have to get involved for real progress.
There have been several Non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) that have done yeoman (and yeowoman) work on the suicide awareness front. But even though they have also made substantive interventions, there is not enough coordination between the NGOs and the Government and among themselves in those interventions. It is quite possible that in certain instances they may even be working at cross purposes.
After the two decades of raising awareness on suicide, there has been a tremendous amount of data that has been gathered which should be used to assist in dealing with the phenomenon. In an advertisement by the Government on Sunday, it was claimed that from a high of 44.2 suicides per 100,000 persons in 2014 – which earned us the world top spot – the rate has since plummeted to almost half of that – 24.63. While there have been questions about the accuracy of the 2014 figures, it is unquestioned that the awareness programme and the intervention programmes have made a dent.
The Government ad disaggregated the figures on suicide and pointed out that the majority of suicide victims are male and, consequently, “particular attention” must be paid to them. In these matters, the more the data is disaggregated; there will be clues on making more directed interventions.
For instance, the advertisement stated that in the “Suicide Prevention Strategy 2015-2020”, children are subjected to “bullying, poor body image, and lack of self-esteem problems which help trigger suicidal behaviour.” Obviously, then the Health Ministry and the Education Ministry must collaborate on joint programmes to intervene, in the school system which acts as a catchment for our children in a controllable environment.
But it was somewhat disappointing that the figures on male suicide were not disaggregated just a notch further. It would have revealed a most pertinent area for effective intervention – the ethnic difference in the commission of suicide. Male Indian-Guyanese victims outnumber the total number of males in all other ethnic groups in a ratio of three to one, even though they are only 43 per cent of the male population overall. There must be investigations for explanations to this disparity and for programmes that may reduce it both absolutely and relatively.
For instance, in reference to women and children, it was mentioned that there must be identification and referral of domestic violence against them since this leads to suicidal behaviour in those demographics. There needs to be such specificity for the Indian Guyanese demographic since based on their overweening majority in the number of reported suicides, successful interventions will have the greatest impact on reducing the overall Guyanese suicide rate.
In conclusion, we offer one stanza from a poem by one organisation working against suicide that may motivate us to work together to prevent suicide:
Tomorrow needs you to be a good friend.
Tomorrow needs you to hold your little sister’s hand.
Tomorrow needs you to be an uncle, a classmate, a roommate, a cousin.
Tomorrow needs you to laugh. To dance. To build. To dream.
Won’t you stay to see the sun rise?
