The official statistics for people taking their own lives are bad enough, but the actual number is much greater.
Sewa Bhattarai
January 10, 2020
Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA
Nepal’s public health system has no mechanism for recording suicides, and the only statistics about suicides can be found in police records. This data shows that about 5,000 Nepalis kill themselves every year.
But since only police records are counted and attempted suicides are not reported, the official data gives no sense of the incidence of people trying to take their own lives.
Based on police data and projections, the World Health Organisation put Nepal as the country with the 7th highest suicide rate in the world (24.9 per 100,000). Public health experts say that suicide is just the symptom, and that the real disease is poor mental health.
Read also: Suicide by pesticide in Nepal, Sonia Awale
Most people who commit suicide suffer from depression and other mental illnesses like schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders. The Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC) is for the first time conducting a nationwide survey of mental health by year-end, and already the picture is not looking good.
Do not shy away from seeking help. If you, or anyone you know, would like to speak to a trained mental health professional, please contact:
TUTH Suicide Hotline: 9840021600
Transcultural Psychosocial Organization-Nepal Crisis Hotline: 1660 0102005
Mental Health Helpline Nepal: 1660 0133666
“From our pilot survey, we found depression in 3.4% of people, and suicidal tendencies in one out of every ten Nepalis,” says Kriti Adhikari of NHRC.
Most of these people cannot access the counselling and treatment they need since Nepal has only 0.13 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, and most of them are concentrated in urban areas. Nepal Police is the only entity that deals with suicide, and it is more concerned about the criminality of the act than about mental health.
“Nepal’s law classifies suicide and abetting suicide as crimes, so our priority is figuring out the criminal element of the cases,” explains police spokesperson Shailesh Thapa Chhetri. “There is no punishment for suicide because the person is already dead. But we investigate to find out if the death was a murder or a suicide.”
_______________________________________________
______________________________________________
__________
What do you think?
Dear reader, I'd like to hear from you. I regularly publish letters to the editor on contemporary issues or direct responses to something the Post has recently published. Please send your letters to jiwanmalla45@gmail.com with "Letter to the Editor" in the subject line. Please include your name, location, and a contact address so one of us can reach out to you.
_________________________________________________
jeewanmalla54@gmail.com
Instagram:_world_,changing
Twitter. : jiwanthakuri4
Pinterest. :jeewan_world
No comments:
Post a Comment