We need a national conversation on suicide and top on the agenda should be that mental health professionals can manage depression and prevent suicide.
By Mzati Nkolokosa:
The year 2023 ended with bad news: rising cases of suicide, with a worrying trend of teenagers taking their lives.
By end of June, police had registered 256 suicide deaths, an increase from 135 registered during the same period in 2022.
Yet the figure of 256 is lower than the reality because suicide attempts and suicide deaths are under-reported.
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“Our laws criminalise suicide,” Harry Kawiya, Zomba Mental Hospital spokesperson, told the media last year.
As a result, said Kawiya, people don’t report suicide attempts for fear of arrest. Of course, some suicide deaths are not reported for fear of stigma.
Private hospitals do not report suicide, too, for the same reason: clinicians don’t want to criminalise death by suicide and stigmatise family members.
Death is confirmed by a doctor while family members create a narrative of heart attack, brain haemorrhage or some kind of sudden death.
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Suicide is now a crisis in Malawi, with highest figures since government started recording suicide deaths in the 1940s. There is also a new trend of deaths by suicide: children as young as 10, 11 or 12 dying by suicide.
In a media interview in August last year, national police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said that people dying from suicide were mostly of the productive age, 20 to 60. Topping the causes were marital problems.
“Even for young girls who [died by suicide] — most of the reasons were relationship issues. For example, failing to accept that a relationship had ended,” Kalaya said.
And, as if a reminder that the risk of suicide does not care about festive seasons, a 16-year-old girl died from suicide on Boxing Day.
“We are registering more cases of suicide of children than in the past,” says Dr Precious Makiyi, whose area of interest is child and adolescent mental health. “Partly, I would say it has to do with copycat suicide from social media and traditional media.”
Copycat or not, suicide remains a puzzle, yet with known clues and, therefore, preventable.
For adults, according to Kalaya, reasons for suicide are financial and love, in that order. But what about children? Tender and innocent, at the age of 11. What is it that could be so strong to drive a child to take their own life?
Most cases have to do with disagreements between children and parents and a few cases have been love matters, according to police reports.
Love is now breaking the hearts of children, as young as 12 and they are suffering from mental breakdowns.
“We know that one of the drivers of suicide is depression,” Makiyi says.
Depression involves a depressed mood or loss of pleasure or interest in activities for long periods, according to the World Health Organisation.
“When a child is depressed, is being bullied and is exposed to uncensored content online —this [combination] has implications on increasing suicide risk,” Makiyi explains.
Parents remain key to the prevention of suicide in children and adolescents. The general signs for suicide ideation for adults and children are similar. But for schoolchildren, for example, parents and guardians should be on the lookout for sudden drop in academic performance. Or a jovial child who grows cold and sad, no longer interactive – and becomes reserved.
Adults should pay attention to children’s change in behavioural patterns, emotions or feelings and thought processes.
Behavioural patterns can tell that a child is going through a lot, is depressed, and could be considering suicide as a way out of a mental situation.
Children are obviously young minds, still developing, not fully grown up in terms of cognitive processes. They are children and think as such.
“My assumption is that sometimes they think that in dying by suicide, they would punish their parents,” Makiyi says. “Perhaps they think that they would come back to life after suicide, not knowing that suicide is irreversible. That is the end of life.”
Punish parents? Come back to life? These are sweet thoughts to a depressed child, the very reason children should be protected from suicide.
Parents should instil discipline in children, yet with love and kindness, paying attention to children’s mental well-being.
Journalists should report death by suicide with utmost care to protect both adults and children from copycat suicide.
How many deaths by suicide were copycat last year? The number is not known. But science says that survivors of death by suicide in a family are at higher risk of dying from suicide than those in a family without a history of suicide.
“Science, perhaps in the near future, will [discover] whether this has to do with copycat suicide only or genetics,” Makiyi says. “But we know that when a family member has committed suicide, the [survivors], including children, are at increased risk.”
It is clear that the primary support system for children is at home, the space where children’s mental health is either promoted or demoted, according to Makiyi.
Parents are the main figures in the life of children. So, the best is to ensure that the home environment is conducive to good mental health support.
The family system should be well structured and functional, so that children can enjoy good mental health.
Suicide prevention starts and ends with adults, especially parents and guardians—and journalists too, and everyone who posts on social media.
But let this reality be known: when life is tough and you are depressed, death by suicide is not the way out. In fact, mental health professionals offer better options than taking your own life.
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the nearest mental health professional to seek help.
