03 Nov 2019

Botswana Psychiatric Association (BPA) president has called on government to develop a national strategy on suicide prevention.

Speaking at the World Mental Health Day commemoration in Lobatse recently, Dr Mpho Thula said it was important to have a national strategy providing guidance on how to reduce the rate of suicide deaths in Botswana.

“The strategy would force government to commit resources to make sure that access to mental health services is improved in Botswana. Availability of more mental health service facilities around the country would result in better assistance to people with mental disorders, which would lead to a reduction in suicide cases,” he said.

Dr Thula pointed that an average of 312 people committed suicide annually in Botswana, adding over the past 10 years 3 170 people had committed suicide in the country.

He indicated that more than 80 per cent of people who committed suicide in Botswana were men.

Dr Thula said the World Health Organisation (WHO), in their Mental Health Action strategy, had asked countries to reduce suicide rates by 10 per cent by 2020.

“Unfortunately in Botswana we have not been following up that. We do not have a national strategy which we can use to prevent suicide at national level,” he said.

He said the biggest concern was that many of the suicide cases affected the youth between 15 and 29 years.

He pointed that the youth were the country’s future, which is why it was important to address the issue of suicide and mental health.

Dr Thula said suicide deaths would reduce significantly if people with mental health problems were assisted on time.

He outlined that depression, substance abuse, social and financial problems, and other mental illnesses, were the leading causes of suicide in Botswana.

Further, he said abused people were also vulnerable to committing suicide.

“It is necessary to develop laws in this country that would make it difficult for people to buy things which they would use to commit suicide, such as poisonous substances and large quantities of drugs.

There should also be a law which compel railways to be secured by fences to prevent people from committing suicide by jumping in front of moving trains,” he said.

He added that teaching children about mental health issues in schools would also help in suicide reduction and prevention.

He also said providing more mental health facilities and more specialists around the country would make it easier to identify people with mental health problems and assist them on time. ENDS