Mental health... let's talk about suicide

October 11 2021 (18:18 WEST)

Suicidal thoughts are present in the minds of a significant part of the Canarian population. Specifically, in 10.8% of people over 16 years of age. These data make the Canary Islands the third Spanish community with the highest suicide rate. According to this statistic, ten people take their own lives every day in Spain, but the figures increase when talking to experts in the field, since some “covered up” suicides are counted in other causes and pass as accidents.

Suicide is, by far, the leading cause of unnatural death in the Canary Islands, well above drownings, traffic accidents or falls, which places it as a serious public health problem. 

And the full impact that the pandemic has had on mental health in the Canary Islands is not yet fully known.  It is known that suicide attempts have increased, especially among young people in the Canary Islands. 

Some associations and experts on the subject affirm that hiding the problem and not talking about it makes the person who is thinking about taking their own life feel that "they do not have permission to talk about what worries them, entrenching a suffering that grows inside the person who experiences it without sufficient resources to help them process it.

To this must be added that the scarcity of resources in public health to meet the demand for psychological and psychiatric care leads to abandonment of public services, a “medicalization of frustration” and an increase in private therapies that not everyone can afford.

The pandemic has highlighted the precariousness of psychological care, mental health has always been the last in the class. 

The ideation of suicide or the suicidal act itself is not usually unicausal, but rather has a polyhedral form. That is why when a person begins to think about the idea of taking their own life, they should receive social, family and professional support. 

Ideally, there should be a specialist in clinical psychology in each health center in the Archipelago to be able to diagnose and treat patients who need it together, but this support is not available. Psychological needs are covered with the attention of the family doctor who tries to provide an outlet and help to patients. If the doctor believes that the patient can wait, they refer them to the psychiatry service on a preferential basis. These referrals take two to four months to be attended to, while in very urgent cases, less than a week. At the same time, it is important to talk to the family, creating active surveillance over that person.

The lack of resources in public services becomes an added difficulty in the fight against self-harm and suicide attempts and leads to excessive use of psychotropic drugs to alleviate disorders that could and should be treated with therapies. 

It is important to make mental illnesses visible, this would help individuals seek help earlier, it would help to accept them when they have them and work to heal them. Without forgetting that external support is equally important, as they are usually invisible and strongly stigmatized conditions. 

 

*Isabel Sosa Corujo, spokesperson for the CC Local Committee in San Bartolomé

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