Thiruvananthapuram: State Mental Health Authority is all set to create a data-based mechanism for closely monitoring suicide cases, identifying suicide hot spots and vulnerable sections for devising an effective preventive strategy. For the first time in the state, the mental health authority in association with police department has initiated the process of collecting details of suicides and attempts to suicide from each police station and circle.
The mental health authority submitted the proposal before DGP Loknath Behera for collecting details through police stations and circle offices. Intimation was also given out to the district SPs for follow-up action. After getting complete data from police department, the mental health authority plans to analyse the information for identifying “suicide hot spots” and “vulnerable groups”. Age-wise category, socio-economic background, mental health issues, psycho-social problems and other issues will also be factored in for each case.
At the moment, mental health strategists and policymakers are handicapped due to absence of a comprehensive data on suicides and attempt to suicide cases. Even the health department and medical college hospitals have no independent data to plan effective suicide control strategies. Experts say the data collected from police stations and circle offices will be of great help since each case file will contain details like reasons for taking extreme step, age, gender, occupation, socio-economic background and criminal record if any.
The existing data on suicides available with State Crime Records Bureau is limited to figures. The focus will also be on suicide hot spots. For instance Thiruvananthapuram district has an average suicide rate of 40/lakh population while Malappuram district has about 10. According to mental health experts, interventional strategies work successfully in areas which have high suicide rates. In places with lower rate such initiatives may not be that effective.
