1,200 suicides in Chandigarh since 2003

CHANDIGARH: As per the data from the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), there have been 1,200 suicides since 2003 in the city. There were 150 such attempts since 2018 until May this year.
"More than 50% were from the age group between 17 years and 30 years. Hanging was the commonest method to attempt suicide, while depression was the main reason, besides alcohol and lack of finances," said Dr BS Chavan, director principal and also the person who took the initiation of establishing the nodal centre here.
Suicides are preventable deaths if early warning signs can be identified by friends or relatives.This is what the city-based shrinks feel in most of these cases. Experts opine that one must observe warning signs in these people and offer them timely help. There have been established studies to prove that before committing suicide a person gives some indications to a confidant or a relative.
As per the World health organization, every 40 second a life is lost through suicide. WHO projects that by 2020, fatalities worldwide could rise to 1.5 million.
Government Medical College and Hospital 32 was set up as the nodal centre for the prevention of suicide in 2003. “There are two helplines but since there is no dedicated staff, we are managing with the help of the resident doctors in GMCH,” said Dr Chavan.
In the city of Chandigarh, there were 130 suicides during 2003. “This set the alarm bells ringing in the administration. That was the time when GMCH was selected as the nodal centre. A helpline was also started,” said Dr Chavan.
The GMCH conducted a study on the helpline and found 3273 callers who used it. Majority of the callers were males (65.93%), between 20 to 39 years old (56.34%). 72.96% callers had contacted the mental health services for the first time. A significant number of persons (434, 13.26%) called the helpline for marital, academic, stress-related problems. Majority of the calls were received between 8am and 2pm. The number of suicides in the city of Chandigarh showed a decline in the following years since the helpline was set up.
One of the major findings of the study was that majority of the callers were first time callers, and they had contacted any kind of mental health facility for the first time. “Many of these persons would have been suffering from some form of psychiatric disorder for a long time period. These are the persons who are under stress due to various reasons or have psychiatric disorders but are not able to contact the specialist services due to various reasons like lack of time, distance from hospital, lack of knowledge about services, stigma about seeing a psychiatrist, or lack of awareness that the problems are due to a psychiatric disorder,” said Dr Chavan.