Sat, Feb 18, 2006 page2

• Suicide support needs more funds

  • By Shelley Shan / STAFF REPORTER
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  Non-governmental organizations working to lower the nation's suicide rate yesterday urged the government to provide more financial support to allow more professionals to be at the frontline of suicide prevention.

  "We hope that the government can help raise the quality of our volunteers by allocating more funds for us, so that more professionals would be able to work at the frontline to save victims," Yeh Chen-pin (葉貞屏), representative of Christian Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization, said at a public hearing at the legislature yesterday.

  She also asked the government to establish a more powerful administrative authority that is able to integrate all the resources and organizations and work together to prevent more people from committing suicide.

  Chu Kai-yu (朱開玉), a representative from the Taipei Lifeline Association, addressed the lack of a sound referral mechanism.

  "Half of the calls [we get] are from people suffering from mental illness, like melancholia, and we have no one to refer them to," Chu said.

  The hearing, hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), was attended by government officials, academics, healthcare providers and non-governmental organizations to try to explore the reasons and potential solutions to the nation's high suicide rate.

  Ting noted that the suicide rate in 1993 was 6.24 percent for every 100,000 people, but that figure rose 9.07 percentage points to 15.31 percent in 2004.

  He said that the number of people who committed suicide last year reached approximately 40,000, with the number of people having attempted suicide around seven or even 10 times higher.

  Chang Teh-tsung (張德聰), director of the Mental Health Association, said that unemployment remains the key factor behind these suicides. Research has shown that a one percent increase in the unemployment rate corresponds to a 4.1 percent rise in the suicide rate.

  Reduced incomes, rising divorce rates and emotional problems among young adults were also cited as common reasons behind the hike in the suicide rate, he said.

  Chang also attacked media coverage of suicide incidents, saying they focus on the negative and thus help fuel a "suicide tide" nationwide.

  In addition to the lack of a high-profile administrative authority and adequate funds, Chang said that the government's goal of reducing the suicide rate by 20 percent in three years was impractical.

  "The British government intends to reduce the suicide rate by 20 percent in 14 years, while the US government plans to lower the rate by 56 percent in 12 years," Chang said. "In the words of a frontline worker, you would have to work extremely hard to achieve the Taiwanese government's goal."

  Meanwhile, Lin Chia-hsing (林家興), a National Taiwan Normal University professor, said that the Department of Health should allocate NT$500 million of its budget to provide professional help to people belonging to this higher risk group.
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