The number of suicides among young people has been increasing each year, while resources cannot meet the need for counselors, a report issued last week by the Control Yuan found.
Last year, 10,659 young people aged 15 to 24 committed suicide, accounting for 26.4 percent of all suicides, with depression or mental illness reported as the cause in most of the cases, the report said.
The Control Yuan said that its investigation showed a considerable lack of resources for counselors to help people considering suicide, urging authorities to remedy the situation as soon as possible.
Photo: Xie Jun-Lin, Taipei Times
The number of suicides among young people has risen each year, with 4,365 suicides in 2016, 4,905 in 2017, 6,352 in 2018, 7,991 in 2019 and 10,659 last year, Control Yuan members Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容), Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) and Su Li-chung (蘇麗瓊) said in the report.
“Although we cannot pinpoint a single cause, depression and emotional issues are frequent factors,” the report said. “An insufficient number of counselors, family objections to intervention, and poor integration between school counseling and public health services exacerbate the situation.”
The Suicide Prevention Act (自殺防治法) was passed by the Legislative Yuan on May 31, 2019, to provide a clear basis for the nation’s suicide prevention strategies, but the effectiveness of the act has been hampered by a lack of resources, the report said.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Private schools especially lack counseling resources, it said, adding that in 70 percent of the suicide cases involving students from private schools, the students had not had access to a counselor.
The authorities should follow up on young people who are unemployed and not enrolled in study programs to provide guidance where needed, it said.
“We also found that among cases involving students, only 6 percent of the students had accessed counseling resources outside of school, and less than 2 percent performed self-harm prior to committing suicide,” the Control Yuan members said.
FAMILY COMMUNICATION
The report found that a decline in communication among family members and a general lack of public knowledge about emotional issues contributed to the increase in suicides among young people.
Parents and caretakers were generally unable to identify emotional issues when they emerged, it said, recommending seminars to help parents identify when problems might be present.
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