Gov’t advises residents seek help as suicide cases increase
Health authorities advise members of the public who have mental health problems due to the long period of Covid-19 prevention measures to seek help.
“There are many pressure factors including unemployment, quarantine and conflicts with family due to needing to stay at home for a long period, which may cause mental health problems,” said Dr. Lei Wai Seng from the Conde de São Januario Hospital.
“Many people needed to quarantine during the pandemic this time, among them [many] must endure long quarantine periods,” he added.
Late last week, a 74-year-old resident died by suicide at home without leaving a suicide note, and a 31-year-old resident was found hanged in a residential building also without a suicide note.
“There has been a total of 53 cases of suicide since January, a figure close to the 60 cases of suicide recorded in the entire year of 2021,” said the doctor.
According to suicide death surveillance in Macau by the Health Bureau (SSM) back in May, in the first quarter of 2022 there were a total of 28 suicide cases in Macau (14 female and 14 male), of persons aged between 23 and 91 years old. 25 of these cases involved local residents.
In 2021, covering the same period, authorities recorded a total of eight cases of suicide, along with three cases of deaths due to falling, reaching an alarming increase of over 300%.
“The IAS has been closely monitoring these cases and […] ensuring that people who are in isolation have psychological counselling,” said Dr. Lei.
The SSM called on the public to actively seek help if they have psychological and emotional problems to prevent these from becoming sources of pressure and mental illness. At the same time, the SSM will keep monitoring the social situation and providing assistance to people in need.
Meanwhile, Paul Pun, secretary-general of Caritas Macau, believes that the pandemic is the cause of the increasing suicide rate.
“We have received 12,000 phone calls seeking help last year, of which over 2,000 relate to emotional problems,” said Pun.
“Tragedy may occur if emotional problems are not addressed early,” he added.
The Times reported in April that Macau has recorded an alarming number of suicide cases in the first quarter of this year, which could be interpreted as hitting a crisis level.
The Times has observed that the PJ has sent more suicide alerts and death notices due to ‘falls’ this year, compared to last year.
In a response to the Times, the PJ stated that between January to March 2022 the number of deaths due to ‘falls’ was 11.
These figures are much higher than those recorded last year.
The Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) encourages residents to be conscious of their psychological and emotional state as well as those of their relatives and friends. If in need, residents can call Caritas’ Life Hope hotline (28525222) or IAS’ counseling hotline (28261126). Staff Reporter
