Incidents of suicide dips, SL is 22 in world index: Sumithrayo

• Number of suicides drops significantly
• Number of suicide attempts increases with more women trying to end up their lives

 By Shanika Sriyananda

Sumithrayo, which is in the forefront of suicide prevention, urged local media to assist to bring Sri Lanka’s rank in the world suicide index to 22 or 24 through responsible media reportage on suicides.

According to Sumithrayo, Sri Lanka topped the world in suicides in 1995 with 47 per 100,000 persons but the number has come down significantly to 16 per 100,000 persons in 2015.

“Although we have achieved a dramatic dropped in the suicide rate, the international media still ranks us as world’s number one or four in suicides.This is not good for the country’s image and we need the support of the media to correct this number,” Jomo Uduman, a volunteer at Sumithrayo, said.

At a press conference held in Colombo Sumithrayo alarmed that people’s social and emotional issues were yet to be addressed adequately as the rate ofattempted suicides had increased.

“While more men take their lives, more women attempt to commit suicide,” they said, adding that those who want to commit suicide had no intention of ending their lives but wanted to escape the unbearable pain.

A special Presidential Task Force, which formulated the National Policy on suicide prevention in 1996, has identified mental illnesses, alcohol and drug use and poor coping skills as the major contributory factors that lead people to commit suicide in Sri Lanka.

Spelling out ‘10things to remember when reporting suicide’, Sumithrayo said that it had been proven that responsible reporting could help reducing suicides.

“In many countries, they have incorporated responsible journalism in their strategies for suicide prevention. In the UK all the media reports related to suicide have to include the details of a helpline with their stories to help any vulnerable person to seek help to give them the message that there are options other than committing suicide,” Uduman said, adding that Sumithrayo had tried hard to achieve this in Sri Lanka but their attempts had not been successfulyet.

Sumithrayo is befriending and empowering the lonely, depressed, despairing and suicidal with emotional support free-of-charge. This confidential service at the Colombo centre has the strength of over 100 volunteers and receives over 8,000 calls per year who seek befriending via face to face, telephone, by letter and email.

-Pix by Lasantha Kumara