News: Today is World Suicide Prevention Day: Suicide rate declines in Sri Lanka

Home News Photos News Videos News Cartoons News Blogs RSS

Home > Information > Today is World Suicide Prevention Day: Suicide rate declines in Sri Lanka

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day: Suicide rate declines in Sri Lanka

Colombo: Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Loneliness, ignorance and low self esteem top the reasons for suicides among Sri Lankans. An overdose of paracetamol is one of the commonest methods used by teenagers to end their lives, local counselling experts say.

Wednesday, Sep 10, 2008 | 992 Views | Comments [View/Post]

Sri Lanka is among the countries with a high suicide rate, but according to official sources the rate has come down from 47 suicides per 100,000 people in 1995 to 22 in 2006 (available data).

An alarming 70,000 people have committed suicide from 1990 to 2000 with an estimated 14 million reported attempts to end their lives, a research in 2005 have also revealed.

Coping with emotions, sexuality, and low self esteem contributes to a high rate of incidents. A spokesperson for Sumithrayo, a humanitarian organisation with a wide network of befriending services expressed the controversial opinion that the belief of rebirth offered in Hindu and Buddhist faiths could also be deemed as another popular excuse to end one’s life. The popular notion is ” We could start all over again.”

Although suicides are common among all age groups, Sumithrayo says they witness a low rate among school children, probably due to Sri Lanka still having strong family bondages.

But among young adults aged 18 to 24 this problem is very rampant.

This is the point of age they lose immediate attention of their parents or guardians and make their entry to ‘Society”.

Problems related to Sex and alcohol dominate this group. The rate of suicides is also high in the rural agriculture sector where toxic substances used as pesticides and weedicides are freely available.

”Th free availability of toxins is another reason for high suicide rates in this sector. Angry people may act impulsively. But if there is a delay in finding means to execute your will, your rational thinking would over take your anger. Many who have attempted suicide and lived on, later regret their actions,” she said.

A study on adolescents (Age Between 15 to 19) conducted in 90 WHO countries have found, the mean suicide rate for this age group, based on data available for the latest year, was 7.4/100,000. Suicide rates were higher in males (10.5) than in females (4.1). This applies in almost all countries. The exceptions have been Sri Lanka, China, Cuba, Ecuador and El Salvador, the official journal of World Psychiatric Association reveals.

A local expert however said that this could be because the female attempts of suicide are higher than male attempts. Males usually end their bids successfully. Sumithrayo has also seen significant trend among homosexuals, especially females who have to cope up with rejection from the society.

Although we could be happy of the achievements with Sri Lanka recording fewer suicides over the years, there seems to be very low interest and lethargic attitude towards helping people with such problems in Sri Lanka. The State sector involvement in this sector seems very poor. There seems to be no up to date data on suicides and related issues.

There are very few places that offer confidential, friendly support for people to go and talk it out, unburden themselves.

”We cannot be satisfied at all with the available system to address this issue, “ a volunteer said.

This year the World Suicide prevention day theme is “Think Globally, Plan nationally, Act Locally.” It is time for us to Act Locally.


Comment on this article
Guidelines: You must register with a social media account such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, etc. to comment on this story. Click on the "Login" button below to choose your login account of choice. We welcome your thoughts, but this is not an open forum. For the sake of all readers, please refrain from the use of obscenities, personal attacks or racial slurs. All comments must remain on topic and cyber bullying will not be tolerated. All comments are subject to our terms of service. Comments that do not comply may be removed. Repeat offenders will lose commenting privileges.
News Other Language
World News
Movie News
Information
Travel News