By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Sept. 20, GNA – The Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate has advised clinicians and other consulting health officials to make conscious efforts to help identify patients who may be harbouring suicidal intentions for early intervention.
Mr Pious Tay, the Mental Health Coordinator for the Health Directorate, who gave the advice, said it was very possible that clinicians could miss out on patients with suicidal plans thence the need to consciously watch out for ‘red flags’ during consultations and interaction with them.
Mr Tay said this when he appeared on “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! a Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office’s initiative to promote healthy living among the public.
He said some of these patients reported to the hospital with medical issues such as hypertension, but they might be having suicide ideas due to some intra or interpersonal and social issues they might be battling with.
He said clinicians must therefore have time for their patients to make it easy for them, to probe further beyond the initial information that the patient might have visited the health facility with.
Mr Tay also encouraged mental health facilities to also look further and observe their patients critically to enable them to prevent them from committing suicide.
On how to prevent suicide in people, he said everybody had some responsibility, indicating that family, friends, colleagues, mates, and faith-based organisations could help identify patients and give them the needed care and assurances that life was worth leaving.
He said people must make it a point to listen more when such persons talked to them instead of trying to force them to take the advice being offered them.
Mr Tay advised health personnel and society against being judgmental when someone showed signs of suicide, but rather to develop tolerance and be persistent in making it easy for the person to draw close to them to share their problems for effective solutions.
Dr Sally Quartey, the Tema Metro Health Director, spoke on how to avoid suicide, saying that one of the most crucial ways to support those who are in need, shift the conversation around suicide, and take part in suicide prevention was to understand the issues surrounding the concept and mental health.
She stated that while suicide was not inevitable for anybody, it could be prevented through the dialogue, offering support and directing help to those who needed it.
The Tema Metro Health Director added that research had demonstrated that one of the things that could be done to help others was to offer support services, talk about suicide, restrict access to tools for self-harm and follow up with loved ones.
Dr Quartey said community crisis centres connected people to neighbourhood resources, offering quick therapy to anyone who might need it, and assist those who were experiencing crises, and must be resourced to provide quality services to patients.
GNA