Decriminalise suicide, experts tell leaders

Jan 20, 2007

HEALTH experts have asked the Government to de-criminalise suicide and consider the act as a public health issue that requires urgent attention.

By Fred Ouma

HEALTH experts have asked the Government to de-criminalise suicide and consider the act as a public health issue that requires urgent attention.

Though Uganda lacks accurate information on suicide due to the stigma that surrounds it, reports from Police, the media and health facilities reveal that suicide is “very common.”

Experts fear the suicide rate could go up if the phenomenon is not addressed.
A senior consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Seggane Musisi, on Wednesday told a mental health symposium at Butabika that while underlying problems like depression, alcoholism, poverty and some personality disorders accounted for over 90% of suicide cases, criminalisation obscures the problem.
“The Government should de-criminalise suicide and make it a health problem,” said Musisi, who is also the head of the Psychiatry department at Makerere University Medical School.

Over 300 people including Law Reform Commission officials, medical students, local and international doctors attended.
“Suicide is a preventable mental problem that is apparently concealed. It is not caused by witchcraft, neither should it be considered a sin nor a crime if we are to reverse the already worrying trends,” he added.

Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi, a principal medical officer in charge of mental health at the Ministry of Health, said: “There is strong stigma because suicide is a crime.”

The appeal comes at a time when studies show that Adjumani district, with 200 deaths for every 100,000 people, has the highest rate of suicide in the world.

The 2002/2003 study conducted in Adjumani, Bugiri and among first year students at Makerere University Medical School also shows the previously war-affected district as recording the highest number of adults who have considered committing suicide, with a rate of 46.6%.

Comparatively, Bugiri district, which has never experienced war, had a rate of 20.8%.

Prof. Emilio Ovuga, a research partner, said other areas with high suicide rates were Kitgum and Gulu districts, as well as Teso and Karamoja regions.

“Adjumani’s suicide figures by far surpass the rate of 67 out of 100,000 people in former Soviet Union republics like Latvia, which once led in suicide cases,” said Ovuga, a consultant psychiatrist at Butabika Hospital.

Risk factors for suicide include chronic illnesses such as AIDS and cancer.
Suicide rates in Uganda are generally the highest in March and November, the wettest months of the year.

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