Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 21, 2014 Editorial
Guyana has been attracting global attention for the wrong reason. Most recently, an international agency concluded that Guyana has the highest per capita suicide rate in the world. Guyana has a population of less than one million people so this means that its population is more prone to self-destruction than those in any other country.
We know that the rate of suicide is high, so high that a private citizen, Psychiatrist Dr. Frank Beckles sponsored a study. The findings were far-reaching and should have formed the basis for government action.
For one, the government recognized that it did not have many mental health practitioners and there was not going to be a change in the system any time soon. To compound the problem families were slow to recognize mental illness among their relatives with the result that they only sought help when the situation had reached a critical stage.
People are reluctant to even talk about mental health. Families with a family member who is mentally ill fears the stigma and discrimination that has become commonplace. We are not known to be kind to people with any aberration. Perhaps this has to do with our own embarrassment; but then again it may have to do with our lack of understanding.
Whatever the reason, Dr. Frank Beckles’s research found that suicide was most prominent in the agricultural communities. Reasons proffered ranged from the ready availability of pesticides and insecticides to the frustrations that could accompany those relying on farming for a livelihood.
However, the study finds that there is more to suicide in the agricultural communities of Black Bush Polder, Parika and other parts of coastal Guyana. Farmers tend to be heavy consumers of alcohol and the findings suggest that alcohol plays a very significant role in suicides. Newspaper reports on suicides have been quick to point out that the victim was a habitual drinker.
The average of suicides was between 18 and 25. This suggests that the young people are not prepared to tolerate frustration. Many of them chose the road to suicide because they refused to adhere to parental rules or were victims of denial. Perhaps they wanted something that the parent was not prepared to give.
Then there are those who believe that they are in love and when questioned, end their lives. For these reasons and more Guyana is said to have the highest suicide rate in the world. There is also a factor that contributes to this. Most Guyanese feel that for someone to seek psychiatric help is to admit that the individual is stark raving mad. The result is that people are not quick to visit psychiatrists. In fact, this category of medical professional is virtually unknown.
What Guyana needs are more people who would be trained in the field of mental health. A few years ago the Ministry of Health sent eight nurses to train as psychiatric nurses. Only two remain, the others have left for those countries where their skills would be better rewarded.
Then there are the religious leaders who unwittingly contribute to this scourge. Certain diseases carry with them a stigma. The result is that people do not talk too much about them, sometimes not even with family members. HIV/AIDS is one such.
Some religious leaders refused people from the Ministry of Health to conduct seminars with young people on the disease. In the end when the disease reared its head in those communities the young people were so distraught that they killed themselves. Admittedly, this has changed for the better but there are still people who are so traumatised by the disease that they opt for suicide.
Some feel that the economic conditions, for example the lack of jobs, contribute to the rate of suicides. People are too wrapped up with their own plight that they cannot take the time to look at another’s problems. Those with their serious problems feel neglected. Guyana may wish to set up community counselors but then again, such people may not be readily available.
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