[www.inewsguyana.com] – Regional Councillors of Region Two – Pomeroon Supenaam are calling on Central government to address the issue of suicide in the Essequibo block which has increased in the past months.
RDC Councillor, Basil Bryan Persaud suggested that counseling sessions on domestic violence be held across the Region and called for social workers of the Ministry of Social Protection to go out in the field and work with persons affected.
Meanwhile, another councillor, Rozetta Beatrice Mittelholzer called for consultation sessions to be held with persons on the ground. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in its first global report on suicide prevention revealed that Guyana is the country with the highest estimated suicide rate for 2012 globally with Suriname ranking as the sixth highest.
According to the report, “Suicide rates in this Region show a first peak among the young, remain at the same level for other age groups and rise again in elderly men. In high-income countries, hanging accounts for 50% of suicides, and firearms are the second most common method, accounting for 18% of suicides.”
The WHO further noted that the relatively high proportion of suicides by firearms in high-income countries is primarily driven by high-income countries in the Americas where firearms account for 46% of all suicides; in other high-income countries firearms account for only 4.5% of all suicides.
