Suicide and crisis management

Abstract

Suicide among the general population is a major public health problem and thus is a cause of concern for India. Since suicide is the outcome of multiple factors including socioeconomic, cultural, religious, and political; intervention and prevention strategies will vary from region to region. The legal framework and guidelines in a country can influence the suicide rate by eliminating barriers to mental health services, by adopting and strictly implementing policies on access to firearms for persons with risk of suicide, providing services for treatment of substance abuse patients, and by training of school personnel so that they can identify and assist vulnerable youth in accessing help. Mental Healthcare Bill (MHCB), 2013, will soon become the guiding law for the treatment and rehabilitation of persons suffering from mental health issues. Although MHCB has been criticized on many fronts, it still has laudable provisions that attempt to address reducing treatment gap through the proposal of availability of minimum mental health facilities at primary health center, proposing comprehensive treatment facilities including rehabilitation and the proposal to remove attempted suicide from Section 309 of IPS, etc., which might contribute in suicide prevention and other mental health crisis situations.