PHA-Exchange> Re: [afro-nets] On World Mental Health Day, UN Calls for Greater Efforts to Tackle Suicide

[George Kent]

In India, farmers are committing suicide by the thousands, mainly  
because they get into overwhelming debt. To cast suicide simply as a  
problem of mental illness helps to evade recognition that people who  
commit suicide might be embedded in unbearable social structures.

Aloha, George




On Oct 10, 2006, at 6:21 PM, Vern Weitzel wrote:

> On World Mental Health Day, UN Calls for Greater Efforts to Tackle  
> Suicide
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ----
>
> Cross-posted from: UNNews at un.org
>
> With at least 870,000 people killing themselves each year and 450  
> million others around the world affected by mental, neurological or  
> behavioural problems at any given time, the United Nations today  
> marked World Mental Health Day with calls for greater attention to  
> be afforded to the causes and treatment of suicide. http:// 
> www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sgsm10661.doc.htm. “Deaths due to  
> suicide, and the factors that can lead to it, do not receive enough  
> attention. If we add to that the many attempted suicides, we can  
> see the real scale of this public health problem and human tragedy.  
> Although one of the most important risk factors for suicide is the  
> presence of a mental disorder, such as depression or schizophrenia,  
> and there are efficient and affordable ways of dealing with these  
> disorders, not everybody in need has access to treatment”.
>
> The UN World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/ 
> news/releases/2006/pr53/en/index.html) noted that suicide in some  
> regions, constitute the third leading cause of death in the age  
> group 15-35 years. Suicide is the leading cause of death for this  
> age group in China and the second in the European region.
>
> WHO underscored the ‘huge gaps’ in treatment and resources and  
> called for mental health policy, plans and legislation to be  
> integrated into national health systems.
>
> Reducing the global suicide rate means effectively addressing the  
> serious and growing burden of mental illness around the world.
>
> --
> Vern Weitzel
> mailto:vern at coombs.anu.edu.au
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