Today is World Suicide Prevention Day
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Last year (2012), 3,500 Sri Lankans had committed suicide. This is a significant decrease when considering the number of Sri Lankans who had committed suicide in 1995, which was 8,500, Health Services Director General Dr. Palitha Mahipala said.
According to Dr. Mahipala, the number of Sri Lankans who had committed suicide between 1985 and 2000 were 106,000. Only half ( 53,000) of this number of people were killed due to war during the same period (15 years). Suicide is one of the three main causes for death of people between the age of 15 and 35.
Dr. Mahipala pointed out that banning highly poisonous insecticides and advancement of medical treatment has seen a drop in the number of deaths caused by poisoning, eventhough the number of attempted suicides had seen an increase. Attempting to commit suicide is a mental sickness that needs medical treatment. Persons who suffer from depression often commit suicide.
Persons who try to commit suicide often suffer from various mental disorders, stress and fear. Awareness raising among small groups is very important when preventing suicides. Help and assistance is available at institutions, such as, Sahanaya, Sumithrayo etc and those who need help can call 1333.
(Courtesy: Daily News)
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Need World Rape Prevention Month!
London: About 1 in 10 men in some parts of Asia admitted raping a woman who was not their partner, according to the first large studies of rape and sexual violence. When their wife or girlfriend was included, that figure rose to about a quarter.
International researchers said their startling findings should change perceptions about how common violence against women is and prompt major campaigns to prevent it. Still, the results were based on a survey of only six Asian countries and the authors said it was uncertain what rates were like elsewhere in the region and beyond. They said engrained sexist attitudes contributed, but that other factors like poverty or being emotionally and physically abused as children were major risk factors for men’s violent behavior.
A previous report from the World Health Organization found one third of women worldwide say they have been victims of domestic or sexual violence.
“It’s clear violence against women is far more widespread in the general population than we thought,” said Rachel Jewkes of South Africa’s Medical Research Council, who led the two studies. The research was paid for by several United Nations agencies and Australia, Britain, Norway and Sweden. The papers were published online Tuesday in the journal, Lancet Global Health.