mot de manda

10 September, it’s today! (i just knew there’s such a thing ^^). another thing, there’s such a related association : international association for suicide prevention (IASP) =p. i thought it was not that serious. Apparently, it has certain seriousness degree, depends on how it’s seen. The prevention has become one of WHO’s agendas with this year’s theme : "with understanding, new hope".

 

several facts and methods bout suicide :

- in the year 2000, one million people died

- one death is estimated for every 40 second

- one attempt for every 3 second

- in Singapore, 1 person ends his/her own life every day

- most popular method is pesticide ingestion (60-90%) -especially in Asia

- males are 4x more likely to suicide than females (CDC 2004) –> shocking, fact that females are more vulnerable isn’t always right. see guys, talk more, reduce stress =p

- more people die from suicide than from homicide. In 1999, there were 1.7 times as many suicides as homicides

- 57% suicide was involving firearm

- lowest rate of suicide in US is in the winter with highest in the spring

   

These figures keep increasing. Recorded in the help-line in Singapore, from 7000calls in 1970, it’s now 43000 calls in year 2004. It reminds me of Rico’s story of someone committed suicide in his neighbourhood. And scene in the movie "I’m not stupid", a boy is going to commit suicide because of poor academic result. All the reasonings continue the list, but it all has the same root - stress and depression.

   

Singapore is not that popular yet for suicide though. The rate (of100,000), is interestingly only 9.5, which is still far compared to France, 17.5 or Korea 17.8. Strict country is not as prone as relax and fun France. Compared to famous Japan, the total death in Singapore in 2002  is 1:100. It’s still a big effort to catch up if Singapore wants to be no.1 in suicide. Group of age 55-64 reaches the highest rate 40.6 (of 100,000) in Japan among the general rate 23.8 - and not the student.  I wonder whether it’s due to post-pension syndrom? Figures are not merely there to be calculated and recorded as statistics. As i learnt sociology, a single life does matter. I forget how it was put. But, dramatically, it does matter when we, again, loss another life in the community. (not economical nor competitive thinking i guess)

   

If your friends say "I can’t go on," "Nothing matters any more" or even "I’m thinking of ending it all." and you do really care, you may want to take a look to www.befrienders.org or other related sites like www.samaritans.org to get some prevention. Fellows taking "Are you okay?Mental Health in Singapore" must know some tips given during lecture =p. Basic idea, just listen to them. It helps.

 

which you can refer to : www.cdc.gov, www.who.int, www.save.org

it leaves me with this trivia : if you feel like killing, will you choose yourself as the victim, or other souls you might not know will be better target?

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 10th, 2006 at 2:29 am and is filed under Event. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.