News last week that Guyana had relaunched its Suicide Prevention Helpline was more than welcome and many Guyanese would have breathed a sigh of relief. That there was a suicide crisis in Guyana was well known. While the situation had not quite gotten to the point where every citizen had a relative or friend who had committed or attempted suicide, it was heading there very quickly.
Prior to 2011, when Dr Leslie Ramsammy was Minister of Health, he had admitted publicly that suicide was raging out of control and he was beginning an impressive-sounding mental health programme, meant to address the issue. Its effectiveness was never tested as the 2011 general and regional elections came along and Dr Ramsammy found himself out of the health ministry and heading up agriculture instead.
The mental health plan was immediately discarded. Because even though it was the PPP/C that won the 2011 elections, it was very well known that the new minister of health Dr Bheri Ramsaran, not only held no brief for Dr Ramsammy, but seemed determined to erase his presence from the ministry. Whatever the war between the two ministers, the mental health plan was one of the unfortunate casualties.
At the time, Berbice was said to be the suicide capital of Guyana. Many of the suicides and attempts occurred in that county and that had been the case historically. However, by a year later, there had been a number of suicides elsewhere in the country, particularly in Essequibo and among a younger demographic.
The usual noises were made after each documented case, but nothing was done. Last year, the World Health Organisation, in its first ever global report on suicide prevention named Guyana as the country with the worst suicide rate in the world. Though there were attempts among those in authority to dismiss the report, Dr Ramsaran, then presiding over the health ministry acknowledged its devastating correctness and claimed that his ministry had already been taking steps to correct it. However, none of these steps had been announced prior to the report making waves around the world. Dr Ramsaran had also admitted that the National Suicide Hotline had been discontinued because it was a complete failure. There had been no attempts by the former government to resuscitate the stricken helpline even though there is universal anecdotal and other evidence that helplines do help to prevent suicide.
Last week’s launch, encompasses landline and cellphone call services as well as texting and various social media means of contacting a counsellor including Facebook, twitter, Whatsapp and BlackBerry Messenger. While time will tell whether this new helpline works, what is important is that persons contemplating suicide who need to reach out to someone, can now do so. Help may not have arrived as yet, but it is most certainly on the way as this bold move shows.
