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Magnus Eze, Enugu
Medical Director of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu, Dr. Monday Igwe, has blamed the collapse of the traditional African extended family system; for the growing rate of suicide in the country especially among the youth.
He identified depression as the major cause of suicide, noting that statistics showed that at least a person dies in every 40 seconds through suicide around the world, while about 800, 000 people die annually.
Igwe who spoke at the commemoration of this year’s World Mental Health Day on the theme: “Mental health promotion and prevention”, in Enugu, yesterday, listed other drivers of suicide to include: unemployment, failure in examination for students and financial stress, among others.
He asserted that suicide is a preventable issue, and urged people to talk about it because that will go a long way in preventing the scourge. “People that commit suicide in the universities mainly centre around examination failure which is a loss event in their lives and so they are not able to cope and they don’t have somebody to fall back on. They internalize their problems and feel that they are the cause of their own problem and that the only solution is to end their lives.
“Another cause is unemployment level, with a lot of financial stress and burden on the family.”
