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Increase in suicide cases among
youth of Kassena Nankana
Bolgatanga, July 13, Ghanadot/GNA–
Fifteen cases of suicide, among people below 30 years in the
Kassena Nankana District, have been recorded, during the
past five months at the Navrongo Hospital.
Most of the cases were due to depression and frustration and
the favoured mode of committing suicide was through taking
of rat poison.
Mr Sobsar Tawele, Community Psychiatric Nurse in charge of
the Psychiatric Unit of the Hospital disclosed this at a
seminar on ‘The Youth and Mental illness organized in
Bolgatanga, for the youth of the Upper East Region.
He noted with concern that, mental problems among the youth
were increasing and called on parents and guardians to watch
out for symptoms of depression, frustrations, abuse of drugs
and alcohol in their wards and seek medical attention as
soon as the signs were detected.
Mr Tawele noted that young people easily got impatient and
frustrated when things did not move according to their
wishes and so felt that death would solve all heir problems.
He said good counsel “could do wonders to those on the verge
of suicide” and urged parents and the elderly in society not
to overlook abnormal behaviour in the young persons close to
them, but pay attention and report for medical help when
necessary.
Mrs Rose Avonsige, an Educationist, who chaired the seminar,
appealed to the Municipal and District Assemblies in the
region to support NGOs and other stakeholders working to
reduce mental illness in the society.
She said targeting young persons in schools with messages of
the causes of mental illness and the need to avoid such
acts, was one of the best ways of saving the youth from the
problem.
One of the participants, Simon Asampana, popularly called,
Jesus, who is a mental patient, after listening to speeches
about the high rate of mental illness among the youth, asked
what the Government was doing to help young people from
getting mentally ill and unproductive.
The seminar was organized by Alliance for Mental Health and
Development, a group of 15 groups that have come together to
help fight mental illness.
GNA
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