GEORGETOWN – Government will be engaging non-governmental organisations (NGOs), religious groups and other civil society bodies to work together on a centralised approach to suicide prevention.
This comes after President of Guyana David Granger convened an emergency meeting with several government ministers yesterday in the wake of another suicide in the country.
During the meeting, the president was updated on the implementation of Guyana’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy, launched by the Ministry of Public Health last September.
In addition, he was provided with updates on work being done within other ministries.
Earlier in the day, the president told two local journalists, during the weekly recording of the television programme The Public Interest that much more needed to be done.
He said he intended to bring together international organisations and civil society organisations to ensure that all of the factors related to suicide are identified and addressed.
The Head of State said, “I am concerned as President that Guyana has a higher rate of suicide than other countries. It is not as though there is an average around the world and we are just average. We are above average and that is disturbing.”
President Granger issued a call to parents, guardians, teachers and church leaders to be more sensitive and understanding of the emotional matters that affect young people.
He said that, “the church needs to be more careful, the home needs to be more careful, peers need to be more careful. It is a delicate period but the state cannot bear the full burden of counselling, the home is where these matters should be resolved.”
President Granger issued a call to parents, guardians, teachers and church leaders to be more sensitive and understanding of the emotional matters that affect young people. He said that, “the church needs to be more careful, the home needs to be more careful, peers need to be more careful. It is a delicate period but the state cannot bear the full burden of counselling, the home is where these matters should be resolved.”
The president affirmed that his administration intends to do all that is possible especially since many of the victims of this scourge are young people in whose hands the country’s future lies. He explained too, that the circumstances and conditions under which people live needs to be examined to understand the underlying factors responsible for the high suicide rate.
“I intend to find out why we have so many suicides and once we identify those factors, try to use Governmental action and try to get the efforts of civil society and households to put this scourge to an end. We are above normal and I want to find out if its social, if its cultural, or if its economic and bring an end to it… we know what the disease is, let’s find out what the cures are,” the Head of State. (GINA/NB)
