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Suicide attempts on the rise in China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-31 08:53
One year ago, Leslie Cheung, a Hong Kong movie
star who won best actor in Cannes in 1993, killed himself in Hong Kong and reportedly
triggered off several suicidal acts among fans on the Chinese
mainland.
The suicidal run underlined a serious problem about depressive illness and
lack of effective psychological health care in China.
Recently, establishment of a medical rescue center for those at psychological
risk at the Nanjing Brain Hospital in this capital city of east China's Jiangsu
Province has further highlighted increasing concerns about depressive illness
and efforts to reduce suicide attempts among the Chinese people.
The center consists of three segments of psychological intervention and
emergency and psychiatric services, employing 150 physicians and nurses.
The first segment provides psychological guidance to people exposed to suicidal risks,
the second offers first-aid service for attempted suicides and the
third, with 400-plus beds, receives and conducts follow-up psychiatric
intervention for patients with failed suicide attempts.
Suicide now ranks the fifth most common cause of death in China, next only to those
from angio cardiopathy, malignant tumors and respiratory diseases and
accidental deaths, according to the China Psychological Health Association based
in Nanjing.
The association said suicide is the top death cause for people aged at 15 to
34 in the nation.
Suicide has become one of the greatest health concerns worldwide. Statistics
show that annually, an estimated total of 1 million people commit suicide, and
the number of failed suicide attempts is more than 10 times the figure.
Currently in China 287,000 people commit suicide every year, orone suicide
and eight failed attempts every other minute, according to data provided by the
Beijing Huilongguan Hospital based in China's capital.
In Nanjing City alone, with a population of around six million, emergency
calls for suicide attempts now number four a day, said Zhang Zhou, director of
Emergency Department of the Nanjing Brain Hospital.
In terms of suicide attempts, rural areas outnumber urban areasand males
outnumber females. The young and the old stand at the forefront, Zhang Zhou
added.
Experts believed that every suicide act may affect at least six people. In
China, more than 15 million people annually demand a range of psychological
health care after their family members or friends commit suicide, and 135,000
children and adolescents suffer from parent suicides, the experts estimated.
Traditionally, Chinese people see depression as shameful and hesitate to ask
for help when they are exposed to high psychological pressures.
According to the China Youth Daily, China started to have psychological
counseling and related hotline services in the 1980s-1990s, yet 93 percent of
suicide attempts have since been put under psychological intervention.
General hospitals nationwide handled about 2 million failed suicide attempts
every year, but less than 1 percent of them receive psychiatric assessment and
guidance during the emergency treatment.
Suicide attempts are a sort of mental illness and should be treated with
professional psychological counseling and medication,Professor Zhai Shutao from
the Nanjing Brain Hospital says.
Mental disorders account for 70 percent of suicidal deaths and 40 percent of
failed suicide attempts in China, experts said.
Liang Lingyan, a psychological counselor from Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong
Province, says that exclusive research instituteand prevention mechanisms should
be set up to reduce suicide attempts in China.
Prior to the psychological intervention service in Nanjing, a psychological
risk and intervention center was launched at the Beijing Huilongguan Hospital at
the end of 2002.
However, Zhai Shutao, a psychiatrist and leader in suicide studies and risk
intervention in China, says that most areas of China do not have suicide
prevention services and that of those who ask for psychological counseling, less
than two percent speak out about their suicidal ideas.
He warns that risk intervention can not be substituted by general
psychological counseling and that to reduce suicide in China, exertions from
several exclusive intervention services are far from enough. He calls for
concerted efforts by everyone in society.
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