18 Sep 2018

Former S’brana Hospital superintendent, Dr Mpho Thula, says the number of lives lost due to suicide exceeds those lost to war and homicide combined.

Speaking at the World suicide Prevention Day Commemoration in Lobatse recently, Dr Thula said suicide knew no boundaries, although some groups of people were at high risk than others.

Dr Thula said the event was meant to highlight the importance of stakeholder collaboration.

He said suicide was a multi-determined phenomenon that occurred against a background of complex interacting biological, social, psychological and environmental risk and protective factors.

He said no organisation or single person could tackle the issue of suicide alone.

Efforts from organisations, agencies and the community would help provide a holistic approach to the multi-dimensional factors associated with suicide, he said.

Dr Thula called on all to introspect and see how best to collaborate with each other in a quest to prevent suicide.

He said preventing suicide was about building on people’s resilience and protective factors from emotional adversity while supporting them, restoring their mental functioning and instilling hope.

He said all this required extensive collaboration and working together with multiple stakeholders and it required tireless efforts of all. ENDS