A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report has named Guyana as the country with the highest estimated suicide rate for 2012 but Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran says his ministry has long since recognised it as a problem and has been working towards addressing it.
In a press release on its first global report on suicide prevention published yesterday, the WHO said in the Americas, the average estimated suicide rate is 7.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is lower than in other WHO regions and lower than the global average of 11.4 per 100,000.
“However, Guyana has the highest estimated suicide rate for 2012 in the world, and Suriname has the sixth-highest,” the release said, while adding that data from the Americas show that suicide rates first peak among young people, remain at the same level for other age groups, and rise again among older men.
According to the WHO, more than 800,000 people around the world die from suicide every year – around one person every 40 seconds. Some 75% of suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries.
‘Many steps’
Contacted yesterday for a response, Ramsaran said that his ministry is aware of the “studies” and that “many steps has been taken in recent times” to address the issue.
The minister went on to list the various activities that his ministry would have undertaken in recent times to address suicide and non-communicable diseases. High on the list was recent training that would have seen some 250 persons from the health sector, in addition to social services, police and prison as he also noted suicide is not only a health issue.
“Many times the health sector only becomes aware when they arrive at the hospital or the morgue,” the minister said.
He also spoke about upcoming activities the ministry is planning to address suicide and other health related problems but shied away from stating what the revelation in the recent WHO report means and how concerned he is about the country being named number one in the world for suicide.
According to Ramsaran, it was noted that mental health and rehabilitation service had been pushed to the back burner in the health sector and as a result in the ministry’s recent ten-year health strategy, those two public health issues have been placed on the front burner.
Pressed further on the issue, the minister said the suicide demographics have changed over the years and that Black Bush Polder is no longer the capital. He said too there has been a shift in the gender and geographic spread.
He said his ministry has created “the tool to address and reduce the suicide rate and that is training, training.”
Critics have said the government has not taken effective measures considering that it has been in office for 22 consecutive years.
Ramsaran’s predecessor Dr Leslie Ramsammy had also identified suicide as a growing problem and one that his ministry would address frontally as the suicide rate climbed year after year. At one time, the minister had said that a multi-sectoral response was needed to curb suicide and he had launched a follow back study that is intended to offer researchers a “post-mortem of a person’s life” as the ministry upped efforts to curb the phenomenon. It is not clear what results that study yielded but the then health minister had said that the study would have helped health officers “to understand the footprints – the special characteristics to look for in a person who will attempt or commits suicide successfully.”
At the time ten health workers were undergoing training to determine the factors which contributed to suicide and possible means of intervention.
“Understanding will help us to create a programme which will help to prevent suicide,” the minister had said at the time. On completion of training, the workers were expected to venture into communities to train other ‘gatekeepers’ to prevent suicide.
In addition to the study, the minister had then said other factors, such as alcohol abuse and adverse medical diagnoses, led to suicide having to be addressed. Mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, were also expected to be examined, he said.
For a number of years the suicide rate in Guyana has been climbing steadily and while several initiatives have been taken to tackle the problem, the government has been unable to stem the climb. When asked if the initiatives taken under his ministry have yielded results, Minister Ramsaran would only say that the ministry is continuing to address the issue and that training is key.
Higher rates among men
The report, World Suicide Report “Preventing suicide: a global imperative” seeks to make suicide a top priority on the global public health agenda. According to the release, the report’s launch comes just a week before World Suicide Prevention Day, which is observed on September 10th each year, to provide an opportunity for joint action to raise awareness about suicide and its prevention around the world.
In general, the report found that more men die by suicide than women. It said that in countries of the Americas, rates range 2 to 6 times higher for men than for women.
Further, the report said that pesticide poisoning is one of the most common methods of suicide, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and it accounts for one-third of cases globally.
“The relatively high proportion of suicides by firearms in high-income countries is primarily driven by high-income countries in the Americas, where firearms account for 46% of all suicides; in high-income countries outside the Americas, firearms account for only 4.5% of suicides, the WHO said.
It further stated that evidence shows that limiting access to the means of suicide can help prevent such deaths, as can a commitment by national governments to the establishment and implementation of coordinated plans of action.
The new WHO report identifies a series of measures that can help prevent suicide, including:
• creating national strategies for suicide prevention
• restricting access to the most common means of suicide, including pesticides, firearms and certain medicines
• providing medical follow-up for people who have attempted suicide
• incorporating suicide prevention as a central component in health services
• identifying and treating mental health and substance abuse disorders as early as possible
• responsible reporting on suicide by the news media.
