Factual data needed to tackle suicide – President Granger
President David Granger
President David Granger

By Navendra Seoraj

THE presentation of ‘anecdotal’ information has proven to be a failure in the fight against suicide, given that its rate continues to increase, so the collection of scientific and factual data is needed to curb the trend.President David Granger made that declaration during an interview on his weekly show, “Public Interest,” on February 4, 2016. He asserted, “my only concern is that some of the data being collected are still anecdotal. Hence we need scientific data to derive interventions, guided to produce results.”
A few weeks back the President convened an emergency meeting with the Minister of Public Health Dr. George Norton and other key stakeholders, where they concluded that Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), religious organisations and other civil society organisations will be engaged to work together with the government on a centralised approach to suicide prevention.
However, the President stressed that although the suicide prevention committee was formed, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) continue to come on board, the suicide rate is still increasing.
ONLY ON HUNCHES
Reiterating that, “in the past we were working only on hunches, therefore we need a more factual basis to tackle the issue. It was suggested that pesticides and other poisonous substances should be monitored, but if someone wants to kill themself and those things are locked away, they can still jump over a bridge or hang themself. Thus, facts are needed to derive solutions and methods.”
In that light, President Ganger indicated that a commission to produce statistics and more factual data is in the pipeline, since the aim is to take away the real facts from the anecdotes.
Since the beginning of the year, close to 20 persons have either committed suicide or attempted to commit suicide, particularly in the Berbice and Essequibo regions, a shocking trend which has been evoking grave concern among the populace.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has ranked Guyana as having the highest suicide rate per capita worldwide, with approximately 44.2 suicides per 100,000 persons per year. Over the last decade, a person ended his or her life every 1.8 to 2.4 days in Guyana.

ALMOST IMPACTFUL AS HIV AND AIDS
In the United States, there was a suicide every 13 minutes and globally there was a suicide every 30 seconds. Suicide accounted for 1.4 per cent of all deaths worldwide in 2012, making it the 15th leading cause of death, almost as impacting as HIV and AIDS. Among the age group 15 to 30, anywhere in the world, suicide is among the top three causes of death.
“People say it is mental health, rural or even ethnic problems that spark suicide, but no one can say for sure, because from what I have seen, the people that commit this act come from a bright background, not poor and depressed, they have good family backgrounds. So it is truly a baffling experience,” said President Ganger.

BE MORE SENSITIVE
He recently issued a call to parents, guardians, teachers and church leaders to be more sensitive and understanding of the emotional matters that affect young people, noting, “The church needs to be more careful, the home needs to be more careful, peers need to be more careful. It is a delicate period but the State cannot bear the full burden of counselling, the home is where these matters should be resolved.”
The President affirmed that his administration intends to do all that is possible, especially since many of the victims of this scourge are young people in whose hands the country’s future lies. He explained too that the circumstances and conditions under which people live needs to be examined to understand the underlying factors responsible for the high suicide rate.

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