Design suicide prevention strategy now

Mmegi Editor | Tuesday September 23, 2014 15:39

“While a lot of countries have a national strategy in place for tackling suicide, Botswana does not. In its corporate strategic plan, the Ministry of Health does not even have any objective or initiative about suicide. Suicide in the country is still viewed largely as a law enforcement issue to be dealt with by the police and not as a public health  -or mental health - problem, which should be the case. We need resolve at national level to ensure a coordinated approach if we are to have any chance of bringing down the statistics” he stated then.

We agree with Dr Thula.

As Dr Thula said, suicide remains a major public health issue in Botswana. It comes a very close second to motor vehicle accidents. The country has the necessary infrastructure and expertise to run with a national suicide prevention strategy.  In fact, Botswana has trained hundreds of psychiatrists and psychologists over the last decade. Many of these, remain unemployed and could become the solution to this growing problem. Failing to have in place a suicide prevention strategy is like watching your house burning and doing nothing about it.

Perhaps we should consider the numbers to appreciate why that is important. In the last year alone, 380 people committed suicide. There were 31 more people who died in road accidents. For a small population such as ours, the suicide rate should be considered a crisis. And every crisis calls for immediate action.  Thus government should treat the need for a national suicide strategy as an urgent matter and start drafting one. This will be both a demonstration of concern and compassion by the government. Furthermore government should set up a national suicide prevention coordinating body, in the mold of NACA, as called for by the World Health Organisation.

The strategy would necessarily provide a policy agenda, a national task list, a tool for identifying promising and best practices, and a roadmap to an integrated solution.

It would cover every aspect of our concerns as a nation with respect to suicide prevention, research, education, treatment, crisis intervention and bereavement support.

The Ministry of Health should also take the lead in creating healthy debate around the subject in pretty much the same way it did with HIV and AIDS.  It be a good idea to introduce age-appropriate suicide prevention classes in schools. 

The country has done that with HIV/AIDS and sex education.

We believe that would go a long in saving the many lives that are lost every year.

                                                                 Today’s thought

                   “We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

 

                                                                – Charles Bukowski