World Suicide Prevention Day observed
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, September 10 2013: As is done across the globe, World Suicide Prevention Day, which is being observed every year to prevent suicides and create awareness that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death, was also observed at the conference hall of JNIMS under the aegis of Psychiatry Department, JNIMS, here today.

The observance was held under the theme of 'Stigma-A Barrier for Prevention of Suicide' .

The event was attended by Prof L Chandramani, Director of JNIMS; W Gopimohan, Medical Superintendent of JNIMS and Prof M Shyamo, OSD as Chief Guest, President and Guest of Honour respectively.

Prof S Gyaneshwar of Psychiatry Department, JNIMS was also present as a resource person on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof L Chandramani stated that inability of an individual to cope with the chaotic and problematic situation of a society can be one of the reasons for committing suicides.

As such, instead of coming up with destructive ideas which could create chaos and problems in the society we should all come together with developmental ideas and bring peace in the society.

We should also treat patients with suicidal tendency with love and care.

Delivering the Presidential address, W Gopimohan stated that among those trying to commit suicide, 10 percent of them are related to mental problems.

He explained that suicide tendency can creep up due to quarrels, misunderstandings and misuse of drugs.

These people should be taken utmost care and given proper counseling.

Speaking as a resource person, Prof S Gyaneshwor cited reports of WHO and Burden of Disease Estimation and said that now the number of suicide cases has risen globally during the past few years.

He said over 10 lakh die from suicides in the world and in the case of India, the rate has increased to six-nine percent as per official reports.

In the context of Manipur, it has been estimated that about 5.01 percent of the cases registered at the Casualty Department of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal from October 2004 to September 2005 were suicide related cases, he informed.

The professor further said that almost 90 percent of the suicide cases are related to mental illnesses.

He said such cases are mainly caused by lack of medical treatment centres and at the same time such mental patients did not receive proper treatment.

According to WHO, 25 percent of various illnesses in the world will turn out to be mental ailments, he mentioned.

He suggested that the rate of suicides can be decreased by getting rid of stigma and providing right medical treatment.

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