CABINET has expressed concern on the use of questionable international statistics relating to Guyana’s suicide rate, this was according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon. 

At the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing last week, Dr. Luncheon said that Cabinet feel that “the reported statistics [about suicides in Guyana] were not consistent with the records and the recorded data being collected by national entities.”
While expressing the need for the release of such information, Dr. Luncheon noted: “Cabinet is of the opinion that the statistics being circulated widely… overestimate the incidents of suicides in Guyana.”
The HPS was asked to clarify how figures reported by the international community would not coincide with those possessed locally, to which he responded maintaining that the international figures were grossly exaggerated.
“The statistics about suicide in Guyana are maintained at two levels,” he said while calling out the Guyana Police Force, and the Ministry of Health. To this end, he said that Cabinet is unanimous that the release of the raw data from the sister agencies is crucial.
Dr. Luncheon disclosed that while the Health Ministry’s numbers ” form the basis for the reports that circulate,” that both the Pan American Health Organisation and the World Health Organisation have “statistical devices” used to determine the world ranking of countries.
He said additionally that while these statistics are used to determine the global rank of countries, “raw numbers would not allow comparison among countries that report on suicide.”
Dr. Luncheon said that Cabinet has agreed to adopt efforts to show the true figures as such he mentioned that mechanisms should be put in place to satisfy Guyana and the Caribbean with the accuracy of these reports.