Tomorrow, Belizeans will be celebrating St. George's Caye Day, it's a public and bank holiday and most people will either continue partying as part of the September season or spend time with family and friends as they watch the 10th Parade pass by. So it's really hard to think about death or suicide in this festive season, but tomorrow is also World Suicide Prevention Day. It is a serious social concern because our most vulnerable group is youth. The Health Ministry's Mental Health Unit hosted a ceremony today at the Yabra Green Field next to Wesley College to discuss suicide and prevention tips with the students. The theme for this year is "Working together to prevent suicide".
Participant
"It is the act of intentionally killing or taking your own life, causing your own death, one would question why would someone want to commit suicide. You would have to understand that suicide is an impulsive act due to stress such as financial difficulty, trouble with relationship or even bullying, do you know the highest rate of suicides are found in teens between the ages 15 and 19. Do you know that every person in the world goes through at least one tragic event in their life? Do you know that suicide is not the answer nor is it a solution? Do you know there are people who love you and care about you and don't tell you this daily ? Do you know if you are gone today you will greatly affect these people lives and they will live with guilt forever."
"Let us be aware and ask the questions people don't like to ask an take the words I feel like killing myself, let us not take that for granted."
Juliet Simmons, Mental Health Counselor
"Every year on September 10th it is World Suicide Prevention Day but you know it is Belize and we have September 10th special for something else so we are recognizing that day today, September 9th. This year we are doing it at Wesley College, they are hosting this ceremony for us that we normally do every year and it is done in the other districts as well."
Courtney Weatherburne:
"Why Wesley and why you guys chose this format in terms of engaging the youth this time in the discussion."
Juliet Simmons
"Why Welsey, they are the first ones to respond to my invitation, the first high school that said yes they would like it and why we are engaging this population, the adolescent population is a population we have to work with, It is the population that has the most suicide attempts so we can't ignore that and remember too that once there is a suicide attempt there is a high risk for a completed suicide down the road. So we have to work with everybody who has attempted suicide especially in this population because they have the biggest numbers."
Courtney Weatherburne:
"Also in terms of statistics if you can provide for last year or maybe this year if you have that already?"
Juliet Simmons
"Last year if I could call it a trouble year for us, that was one of our highest numbers we had 31 suicides last year which is higher than many of the past years where we were in the lower 20's, for this year, 2019 we have 7 unconfirmed so the numbers are low, let us keep it low for this year."
In the last 10 years there have been 400 cases of adolescent attempted suicide. Also to note, there will also be a high school speech competition on October 10th which is World Mental Health Day. The theme for the competition is suicide triggers and strategies for prevention. For more information on how to submitt your speech you can check with your high school counselor or call 202-2511. Men are also a vulnerable population and there are focus groups for them too.
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