HYDERABAD: District health officers (DHOs) in Sindh and medical superintendents of all public-sector hospitals in the province have been asked to nominate their respective focal person for maintaining a record of suicide/attempted suicide incidents in their areas in collaboration with police with a view to check the rising tendency of suicide.

After collecting the data, the reasons behind the increasing trend of suicide in people would be compiled and remedial measures recommended.

“We have issued such notification and implemented it today ... the information and facts about the incidents will be collected on a regular basis and compiled at the office of the directorate general of health services at Hyderabad,” the acting Director General of Health Services, Dr Mobin Ahmed Memon, said while speaking to this reporter on Monday evening.

He said the data and facts thus collected would be assessed on scientific lines and efforts would be made to find ways to check the trend in consultation with experts including psychiatrists.

Dr Memon said that suicide/attempted suicide is a crime but it was necessary to address the issues leading a person to take the extreme action. There is increasing realisation in the world that immense mental stress drives one to end his or her own life.

“In our society, financial issues appeared [to be] a major cause of the rising trend,” he noted.

Sindh Mental Health Authority chairman Dr Karim Khwaja has appreciated the initiative and said that it was for the first time that something was being done to check the trend in the country.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2019