Guyana displeased with WHO’s suicide reporting
Friday, October 17, 2014 | 9:31 AM
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Guyana Government says it is taking umbrage the recent figures released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) giving the country the dubious ranking of having the highest suicide rate per capita in the world.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said that the way in which the number of suicide cases calculated by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the WHO did not accurately reflect what is recorded by the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Health.
The WHO said Guyana has by far the highest suicide rate among countries in the Caribbean. It has also been listed in the top 10 most suicidal countries.
So far this year more than 30 people have committed suicide while several others are recovering from failed attempts.
Earlier this year, the government said a multi-sectoral approach was needed to deal with the number of suicides in the country.
Luncheon acknowledged that the Ministry of Health’s reports are utilised by the WHO and PAHO which employ “statistical devices” to ascertain their figures.
“They have a statistical tool or tools that they use to convert our data into numbers that allow them to compare and contrast Guyana with other countries and therein lies the difficulties,” he said.
He said the Guyana Police Force’s Criminal Investigation Department, have records which are overstated by the Health Ministry and even more so by the international community’s organisations.
“Cabinet has agreed that efforts must be made to affect the necessary reconciliation. There must be some mechanism to satisfy Guyana and the Cabinet about the accuracy of these reports and efforts are being made to do that,” Luncheon said.
In terms of combating incidences of suicide, the Health Ministry has launched a new Mental Health Strategy which will see special focus being placed on suicide causes and prevention.
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