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The Ghana Psychological Association (GPA) has celebrated World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) by calling on the government and relevant stakeholders to urgently contribute to meaningful initiatives to prevent suicide in the country.
Joy Anima Debrah, GPA’s national public relations officer, commemorating the 2020 edition under the theme “Working together to prevent suicide,” said the problem has become rampant in the country and affects all family, friends and colleagues, employers and employees, communities.
Hence the need for a collective effort towards suicide prevention in Ghana.
“Suicide prevention is everyone’s business and each and every one of us has a role to play.
“The multifaceted nature of the problem requires that we go beyond one-size-fits-all prevention frameworks that are not achieving much-needed results.
“This is because interventions from such frameworks are often unique, universalized and contextual, and often inform a conceptualization of suicide as an individual problem that requires solutions at the individual level,” he said.
Noting that psychological well-being is equally relevant, Madame Debrah chided the media for failing to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) standards for reporting suicides.
She said: “Apart from the unnecessary sensationalism and glamor, our media continues to give detailed account of suicide methods, publish images of suicidal people and do not provide the public with suicide prevention education and professional contacts for support services. to suicide. Failure to meet prescribed standards for reporting suicide is a high risk of copycat suicide in vulnerable individuals. “
