President of the International Association of Suicide Prevention Dr Brian Mishara recently spearheaded a local training session on suicide prevention, which is the second intensive health sector initiative in two months to build capacity for its mental health programme.
The focus of the sessions was on assessing who is at risk and improving the services which are available, Dr Mishara said Tuesday, while noting that people skills are very important in the push to enhance services. “No matter how desperate someone feels there is always some way of feeling better and getting help in a situation,” he asserted.
Suicide prevention strategies, including programmes targeting communities, are high on the agenda for the two-day training session which opened Tuesday. Mishara said suicide awareness remains a key strategy because “increased knowledge is critical.” He emphasised that suicide is a preventable problem.
“This is also about helping young people develop the life skills they need to cope with their problems so they would not think of suicide as a way out of their problems and will instead look to the solutions,” he stressed.
The Ministry of Health collaborated with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry for the sessions which initially target health professionals and will roll out on tomorrow to community leaders.
The ministry stated the objectives of the sessions as strengthening the sector’s capacity to provide mental health care services by enhancing suicide risk assessment and risk management competencies among existing health workers in primary and specialty mental health care services. It said too the focus is on building gatekeeper and support capacity within communities for persons at risk for suicide.
In addition, the ministry said it is seeking to develop capacity to gain an understanding of the confluence of risk and protective factors associated with suicide and suicide behaviours in individuals and groups in Guyana and also to develop and implement a multi-sectoral suicide prevention response through the creation of community gatekeepers and the enhancement of primary care and specialty mental health service capacity.
Previously, Mishara was in Guyana to discuss prevention strategies that might be feasible in the region while stressing the importance of the link between suicide and mental health disorders.
The suicide rate locally is approximately 20-25 per 100,000 population and it has been consistent for years. Suicide has also ranked seventh of the ten major causes of death in Guyana for years, averaging around 200 deaths annually.
Ramsammy recently said that mental health has been neglected for years, but he declared it is now occupying a priority place on the health agenda.
