Opinion Preventing suicides in cities

Newspapers in Mumbai these days are full of suicide stories. For reasons that are difficult to fathom,the city is suddenly rocked by a spate of suicides. The most heart-wrenching are reports about suicides by a large number of school students. The Government of Maharashtra has asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to study the phenomenon and suggest remedial action. Many schools have started special counseling programmes.

Suicides reported in the mainstream media are only a small segment of such tragic occurrences in this sprawling metropolis. Big newspapers hardly ever report suicides taking place in slums,where more than half of Mumbai lives. Moreover,completed cases of suicide are only a fraction of the attempted suicides. How can help be reached to these desperate souls entrapped in a dark tunnel? Do we have enough helplines? Do we sufficiently encourage and support organisations and volunteers running them? Ketan Tanna,a senior and socially sensitive journalist who worked for four years as a volunteer with Samaritans,one such helpline,told me,“Life in this city can be extremely lonely for many people,who cannot find hope or help when they need it. My experience as a volunteer made me aware of how badly those attempting to commit suicide were looking for someone—anyone—that they could talk to. Those who called the helpline were complete strangers to me,but,nevertheless,they would pour out their troubled hearts,just hoping that I,on the other end of the phone,would understand them. One of my greatest sources of satisfaction in life is the belief that I probably prevented at least some suicides by lending an empathetic ear to the callers.”

A key element in any assistive strategy is the need to create awareness that ninety per cent of people who complete suicide have a diagnosable and treatable psychiatric illness,says Dr Meera Narasimhan,professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina and a member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In a talk on ‘Mental Illnesses—What India Should Learn from the West and How India Can Help the West’,hosted last fortnight at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai,with which I am now associated,she said,“Depression and anxiety disorders are going to be a major public health concern globally. Sadly,care of mental health has not received sufficient attention in India. For a country of one billion-plus people,India has only 4,000 psychiatrists. There is an urgent need to integrate mental health with the primary healthcare system and to counter social taboos associated with mental illness which deter many families from seeking help.”

Narasimhan highlighted the importance of a supportive family and caring community environment,which,sadly,is being rendered fragile by urbanisation. “Yoga,meditation,spiritual activities and involvement in voluntary social service promote mental health,” she said,adding,“India should make good use of its traditional wisdom on holistic health.”

What India should learn from the West is both meticulous evidence-based research in its academic institutions as well as the wealth of inspiring literature for lay people that its scholars routinely produce. One such globally reputed expert on mental illnesses is Kay Redfield Jamison from the Johns Hopkins University. In her books Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide and An Unquiet Mind,her acclaimed autobiography,she describes how she overcame her manic-depression that had led her to attempt suicide. She writes: “The suffering of the suicidal is private and inexpressible,leaving family members,friends and colleagues to deal with an almost unfathomable kind of loss,as well as guilt.” What is instructive for all of us is her sobering reminder that the suffering is by no means unique to the suicidal. “We all build,” she says,“internal sea walls to keep at bay the sadnesses of life and the often overwhelming forces within our minds. In whatever way we do this—through love,work,family,faith,friends,denial,alcohol,drugs,or medication,we build these walls,stone by stone,over a lifetime.”

As our own humble contribution to promote mental health and prevent suicides,why not build more walls of love,work,family,friends and faith to help ourselves and others in society?

Write to: sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com