Slovenia among countries with highest suicide rate
The 10th of September is World Suicide Prevention Day and in Slovenia the Public Health institute has been working on ways to prevent suicide. Slovenia has one of the highest suicide rates in the world along with Hungary and north-eastern European states.
Suicide is a tragedy for those who are left behind but in many cases suicide is foreseeable. Dr. Andrej Marusic, the director of Slovenia's Public Health Institute, about the country's high suicide rate:
"The suicide rate in Slovenia is extremely high, it gets up to 30 per 100.000 inhabitants per year, which would get us in the middle of the highest suicide rate group countries."
But why do people commit suicide, and who is most vulnerable? Dr. Marusic:
"The highest likelihood of committing suicide is in the elderly. The risk factors that could be outlined as main risk factors for suicide, not only in Slovenia, are those related to biological or medical reasons, like depression, especially previous suicide attempts would be the highest risk factor then depression, schizophrenia, alcohol related and other mental disorders. A lot of physical diseases, especially those that are having chronicle pain and some difficult therapeutic procedures, like cancer related treatment."
...it is also a fact that men are more likely to commit suicide than women:
"Well men commit suicide more often than women in Europe, especially in this high suicide rate group countries like Lithuania 4 to 1, or Slovenia 3.6 to 1, Hungary 3.5 to 1, this is like the typical male-female rate in Europe, on the other hand if you look at Asian countries, like China and India, the suicide rate would be higher in women."
The reason for this, according to Dr. Marusic, probably lies in the fact that the culture of being a man in Europe plays a role in making them more prone to commit suicide.
How can family members and friends help people with depression, what should they do, once they see that someone has a high risk of committing suicide and what should they be aware of?
"Well, family members are those, who are going to be the first to recognize depression in a person. They will see the difference, what has happened with you from last week to this week, if you change your mood, your sleeping habits, appetite and all the symptoms of depression. Then the next one should definitely be primary care, physician and all other health care staff, but of course family members, friend, neighbours, co workers should somehow direct their relatives, friends to go to the doctor."
In order to help those people who are prone to commit suicide it is of great importance to prevent suicide, but is this possible? What has to be done?
"Well according to all the risk factors I told you before the suicide prevention can not be very narrow or single minded. It has to include as many risk factors as possible and accordingly it has to include as many vulnerability groups as possible and at the same time include as many professionals as possible. So there is no single project it should be a national programme."
In countries where parliaments have accepted such suicide prevention programmes, the suicide rate has decreased continuously. Unfortunately, Slovenia has no national prevention programme. Although years ago the previous government formed a group of professionals to prepare a national programme, the programme remained in the drawer.
