Lamenting Guyana’s notoriety as the suicide capital of the world, President David Granger on Wednesday urged stakeholders to take action to get help to those in need of it.
“Talk will not end the deaths, action will and we need to take concerted action and I hope that this morning, we will be able to determine causation and help to take the sort of action that could prevent further deaths,” Granger told a National Stakeholders’ Conference on Suicide Prevention, held at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, at Liliendaal.
“Public awareness campaigns must not only address the number of the persons committing suicide but they need to know that help is available and they need to know what help is available and know how to get that help,” he also emphasised.
The conference was organised by the Ministry of Public Health with support from the Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/ WHO).
A 2014 WHO report, referenced by many speakers at the conference, named Guyana as the country with the highest estimated suicide rate for 2012.
According to PAHO/WHO representative Dr. William Adu-Krow, the suicide rate can be lowered through coordinated efforts and he pointed to China’s successes in ridding itself of the status as the world’s leader for suicides.
“We need to find who is doing what, who is doing it where and how they are doing it. Someone may inform us they are doing something on suicide in Region Two. Are you aware? Ministry of Health may not be aware because sometimes they are not informed. So, my question is: are we looking at the core contents of what is going around? Sometimes, you would be surprised we want to do the right thing but something what we are doing is not necessarily the right thing,” he said.
“So this meeting we want people, we have everybody here to tell us what they are doing, where they are doing it [and] how they are doing it. PAHO will continue to support in this area… if they can do it in China, they can do it here,” he added.
Granger underlined the importance of initiatives reaching the vulnerable throughout Guyana and stressed that while the National Suicide Prevention Plan contains excellent policies, they can only be effective if they meet the needs of those that need it most.
“Strategies to prevent suicide must provide for concerted, coordinated and collaborative approaches. These measures, in turn, must be supported by a practical implementation plan which is built on four pillars: first there must be investigation and research to determine what are the causes of suicide before we decide to determine remedies…there must be information and it must be disseminated to spread public awareness about suicide, in all our regions and communities…, there must be an inclusive approach, a multi-stakeholder approach… there must be some interventions. These must include counselling, the provision of access to persons that can provide that,” he said.
The president also noted that for some suicide is a cry for attention.
He cited persons committing suicide at the Kaieteur Falls, which he dubbed “the Kaieteur Effect,” and said that the premeditation suggests that they were not acts of madness or mental instability.
“In the end, it certainly grabs the newspapers’ headlines, getting a few days of coverage and sends a message to the public at large. …It is actually copycat conduct, inspired by the inclination to imitate successful spectacular and staggering deaths,” he said.
“It aims to attract attention, at the local and international levels, and sometimes there is nothing else you can do in your entire life that is so spectacular… every suicide is national news, it is international news… obscure people, little known, could suddenly become significant,” the president added.
However, he said that every suicide should be seen as an indication of unhappiness and that persons should be given necessary help and coping mechanisms to know and see that a good life beckons in Guyana if they stay the course.
