'Men more suicide-prone'

Dr. Irons-Morgan

DR. MAUREEN Irons-Morgan, senior medial officer at Bellevue Hospital, agrees that men are the highest risk group for suicide.

According to Dr. Irons-Morgan, while the number of suicides reported this year to date was catching up with the 1998 tally of 72, the major cause for concern was the fact that 36 of the 38 suicide victims so far this year were men.(Latest figures from the Constabulary Communications Network yesterday showed that the number had risen to 40, including three women).

"Men are not only a high risk for suicide," she said, "but the trend also points to them being more susceptible to violent crime."

Speaking at a recent weekly meeting of Rotary Club of St. Andrew North, at Terra Nova Hotel, Kingston, Dr. Irons-Morgan said that although the current trend was cause for alarm, the number of recorded suicides in Jamaica was among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Trinidad and the United States had suicide rates that far exceeded Jamaica's.

Dr. Irons-Morgan dismissed the popular view that the increasing suicide rate in Jamaica was linked to the poor economy. She noted that the findings of her 1998 study indicated that the losses experienced by suicide victims were more of an interpersonal nature than of a financial one.

She explained that the symptoms of suicide were often "visible to the communities". She went on to state that 80 per cent of family and friends were aware of instances of mental disorder among the victims. In fact, she said for the most part victims were either clinically depressed or suffering from schizophrenia.

According to the senior medical officer, young men were "less socially integrated" and that as a society, we had to help them find "coping mechanisms" to deal with their "issues of fear, jealousy and anger". She suggested that the approach to dealing with this risk group would have to be multi-dimensional.

"Solutions," she said, "cannot be confined to the health system, but a community process is needed."

Dr. Irons-Morgan pointed out that an integrated approach incorporating public education, school and community programmes, in association with the mental health profession was needed to reverse the trend.

Back to News