Here's what she shared about Belize's views on suicide and the signs to look out for if you are worried that your loved one might be considering harming themself.

Mirtha Ical, Nurse PNP
"Presently I would say that they have a misconception about it. It's still a myth and a taboo, but again, that is why we are celebrating this week. We are putting awareness, we are enforcing awareness about this special day that is coming up and we want to make sure that the public the general public understands that it is real. Suicide is real it's occurring and if you can see that it's occurring to every single time then you are not seeing it as frequent but it is real it is happening more often than we can imagine."

"The anger signs most of all would be the signs of depression, hopelessness worthlessness, feeling, and withdrawal from society keeping to their self not eating well. So giving away their possessions would be one of the things. So that's one of the major signs, something that they really value."

"Also one would be clearly bluntly saying I want to die, remarks, remarks about them saying I will do this but for us that is where we as the family, as the friends as the professionals we need to take those comments seriously and that is where we are missing. We need to take it seriously so that we can do something and that is where our theme comes through action we have to do it in action, we have to show them the support."

And that support is even more important for adolescents and children who may be having feelings of suicide.

We asked for insight into what parents can possibly do to approach the issue head on and asked Psychiatrist Alejando Matus for some tips where these sensitive issues are concerned. Here's what he told us.

Alejandro Matus, Psychiatrist
"Is the lima, the motto this year is trading hope through actions and then the Ministry of Health is trying to do a lot of action to give access to the population of the Health Service to prevent and to treat this problem."

"So remember, the problem is multifactorial. Mental Health is important and is key, to the economic situation of the family, then the academic situation of the young children because it is important to know that most of the attempted suicide is between 15 and 29 years this is the highest rate of attempted suicide so we need to focus on the population then we are open, the ministry of health has, is offering a lot of attention,. We are offering in every district psychologists, councillors, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurses, open every single day of the week to receive the call of the parents and we are giving orientation to schools. We are giving orientation to focus in specific populations, and what to do with the parents. They need to speak frankly with the young since they are 23 or 23 years because it's an age that can be a risk and they openly approach that they need to talk openly about that."

The Ministry of Health is observing World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th along with a roster of activities throughout the week.