Since the beginning of 2017, the incessant news of suicide amongst the youth is becoming alarming. Not a single week passes without the traditional and new media reporting on suicide. This creepy-crawly phenomenon if undealt with would end up being an option to many, especially the youth who have added it to their scale of preference when things are not going on well as expected.
It is on this note that www.233times.net, an online news portal is calling for partnerships to undertake a pep-talk campaign in selected schools across the Western and Central Regions of Ghana. The campaign dubbed #SuicideNotAnOption is targeting the junior and senior high school students in these two regions. From the reports in media, the youth are at the victims of the recent myriads of suicides. According to Dr Akwasi Osei the Chief Executive of the Mental Health Authority, Ghana records about 1,500 suicide cases annually. This disturbing figure is projected to go up considering the rate of suicides in 2017 which is only three (3) months old.
The medium appreciates the fact that suicide has scads of causes with the leading causes being depression and exposure to suicidal behaviour so together with the potential partners, we will collaborate with counselling and guidance departments in the selected schools to plan a rather long term agenda after the pep-talk with the schools.
Network for Anti-suicide and Crisis Prevention has given the breakdown of suicide by region (over a year) as
*Greater Accra Region 431
*Northern Region 276
*Ashanti Region 132
*Upper West 118
*Brong Ahafo Region 114
*Upper East 102
*Western Region 102
*Eastern Region 98
*Volta Region 97
*Central region 86
Total: 1,556
From the revelations by Network for Anti-suicide and Crisis Prevention, an average of 5 out of every 10 people commit suicide in Ghana daily.
For partnerships and details about the #SuicideNotAnOption campaign, contact Nana Kwesi Coomson on 00233248185848, 00447551876848 or via email [email protected] and [email protected].
Author: Nana Kwesi Coomson (www.233times.net) @nkcoomson on Twitter