SUICIDE
PREVENTION POLICY - GOVERNMENT SCHEME
News: Union Health Ministry rolls out country’s first suicide prevention policy
What's
in the news?
● The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, the first of its kind in the country, with time-bound action plans and multi-sectoral collaborations to achieve reduction in suicide mortality by 10% by 2030.
Key
takeaways:
●
In India, more than one lakh lives are
lost every year to suicide, and it is the top
killer in the 15-29 years category.
●
In the past three years, the suicide rate
has increased from 10.2 to 11.3 per 1,00,000 population, the document records.
● The most common reasons for suicide include family problems and illnesses, which account for 34% and 18% of all suicide-related deaths.
National
Suicide Prevention Strategy:
●
The strategy broadly seeks to establish effective surveillance mechanisms for
suicide by 2025.
●
It also aims to establish psychiatric outpatient departments that will provide
suicide prevention services through the District Mental Health Programme in all
districts within the next five years.
●
It also plans to integrate a mental well-being curriculum in all educational
institutions by 2030.
●
It envisages developing guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicides,
and restricting access to means of suicide.
●
It also stresses on developing community resilience and societal
support for suicide prevention.
●
While the strategy is in line with the
WHO’s South East-Asia Region Strategy for suicide prevention, it says it will
remain true to India’s cultural and social milieu.
●
Collaborative
effort: The efforts are now required to prevent suicides as a
public health priority. Suicides impact all sections of the society and thus
require concerted and collaborative efforts from individuals and the community
at large.
●
The strategy should now be passed on to
the States for them to develop locally relevant action plans; and then cascade
to the district, primary health and community levels.