‘Don’t ignore suicide threats; act on them promptly’

PERMANENT Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Patrick Findlay is urging persons not to take suicide threats lightly, but to act on them promptly.

He also advises that persons should immediately intervene and seek help on behalf of the person making the threats.
Mr. Findlay gave this advice as he addressed students of Mibicuri Secondary School, Black Bush Polder last Tuesday. The Permanent Secretary was at the time heading a team of facilitators conducting a Training of Trainers Workshop on social issues plaguing the community, conducted at the Mibicuri Baptist Church.
Findlay, who took time out to pay a brief visit to the school and address the students, was at the time speaking on suicide, its effects on the family and the wider community and ways of preventing it.

MYTH
He cautioned that it is a myth or grave misconception to think that people who talk about suicide will not commit suicide, and warned: “Do not ignore suicide threats.”
He said that people faced with problems and who desperately want to end the pain or agony, but see no way out of their situation, invariably attempt or commit suicide.
“At that point, they want somebody to give a hearing and stop the pain. All the victim needs is for somebody to listen,” Findlay said.
He advised that a person can help the other who is contemplating suicide by letting them know that what they are going through is not unbearable.
A common misconception about suicide is that people who talk about suicide do not commit suicide. Do not ignore suicide threats.
Noting that more than half of the people who attempt suicide reach out for help, Findlay said that when such help is not forthcoming, the victims lose hope and see death as the only solution to the problem or ultimate escape from the pain and so they employ one of the known means within their reach.
Even though suicide by hanging has become widespread in Guyana, a tripartite Suicide Intervention study has found that, in Black Bush Polder, an agricultural community with an alarmingly high suicide rate, the most common way of committing suicide is through ingestion of poisonous substances such as weedicides and insecticides.

SUICIDE TRIGGERS
What causes suicide:
* Domestic issues
* Love affair gone sour
* Poverty
* Hopelessness
* Depression
* Rejection
* Low self-esteem

Addressing the symptoms, and how to detect when people have suicide ideation (thoughts about committing suicide), the facilitator said such persons would normally give clues. For example, they become withdrawn and isolated; they no longer talk a lot; they begin to regularly speak about death and dying; they begin to give away their clothing or other possessions they previously held dear.

UNCOMPLIMENTARY REMARKS
Findlay commented on parent/child relationships and observed that many times parents may either make uncomplimentary remarks to or about a particular child, such as, “He is a no good,” or he is a dunce (meaning not academically inclined). All these lead to the child/person developing a low self-esteem, which can invariably lead to suicide ideation. “Parents have got to change some of the things they say to their children,” he affirmed.
Meanwhile, cautioning the students against ever entertaining thoughts of becoming suicidal, the Permanent Secretary emphasised: “Do not allow anybody to make you become suicidal. And cautioning that suicide is not the solution and does not solve the problem in any way, he ended on a note of hope: “Every situation that has come to us, God has given us the strength to win. Your body is beautifully designed and made, and your life is God’s gift to you.”
And as some might say, “What you do with your life is your gift to God.”

(By Shirley Thomas)