Mass awareness on suicide prevention stressed on World Suicide Prevention Day

KATHMANDU, Sep 10: Psychiatrists and psychoanalysts have stressed the roles of each sector to prevent suicide and the community should be first made aware to discourage the suicide tendency. 

When World Suicide Prevention Day is being organised today including in Nepal, people concerned said observing the Day just for the sake of it will not be effective in reducing suicide rates. 

Psychiatrist Dr Narendra Singh Thagunna said the three-tier government, social organisations and media should own up to the responsibility of making people aware of suicide prevention. As he assessed, nobody in Nepal is seriously working to prevent suicide when the cases are on the rise each year.   

In the last 10 years, over 56,000 people have committed suicide with around 7,000 case alone last year  in the country and the figure is significantly more in comparison of the data of the previous one decade. Nepal Police Deputy Inspector General of Police, Kuber Kadayat also said the cases of suicide are increasing in recent years and intervention in this trend is urgently needed.  

It is said suicide rates were relatively high during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Mental health should be priority of all, he added. 

According to Dr Thagunna, any individual likely to commit suicide may exhibit some specific gestures and the possible loss could be prevented if such gesture could be noticed on time and the person was given timely attention by the family or others.