World Suicide Prevention Day Conference, 2018.

Introduction:

Suicide prevention remains a universal challenge. Every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for people of all ages. It is responsible for over 800,000 deaths, which equates to one suicide every 40 seconds. Every life lost represents someone’s partner, child, parent, friend or colleague. For each suicide, approximately 135 people suffer intense grief or are otherwise affected. This amounts to 108 million people, per year, who are profoundly impacted by suicidal behaviour. Suicidal behaviour includes suicide, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. For every suicide, 25 people make a suicide attempt and many more have serious thoughts of suicide (Culled from IASP manual for suicide prevention 2018). According to recent World Health Organization (WHO) reports, Nigeria is number 33 of 183 countries highly prone to suicide episodes. And this is on the increase.

Our Submission:

Suicide is the result of a convergence of genetic, psychological, social and cultural and other risk factors, sometimes combined with experiences of trauma and loss. Suicide is the process whereby someone takes his or her own life.

In a country like Nigeria, one of the major challenges we face is a mind that has been trained over time to adapt to abnormalities for the period of time that it is trending and then move to the next big news. Anytime there is a visible suicide case in Nigeria, people tweet and post about it, feel pity for the victims and then continue with life as though nothing really happened. This has to stop. There are individuals and organizations doing their best to control the situation and World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is an opportunity to showcase these people- to start a conversation and offer practical solutions that will yield lasting results. The fact that people with non fatal attempts at suicide are taken to police stations instead of mental health facilities is worrisome and the fact that in 2018, there is still a stigma around mental health cases is troubling. Something has to be done about it. This we intend to begin on WSPD. It is also important to note that Nigeria has poor data storage.

You’re therefore invited to participate in a one day conference designed to create awareness and meet the needs of professionals, survivors and interested parties who want to be better informed about suicide prevention and intervention Strategies.

Targeted Participants:

• Allied health professionals
• Clinicians
• Counsellors
• Eduction institutions
• First responders- Emergency services/ Defense /police / volunteer personal
• Non-governmental organizations
• People with experiences of suicide
• Policy makers
• Private health services
• Nurses
• Psychologist
• Psychiatrist
• Rural mental health providers
• Public health workers
• Social workers
• Journalists
• Health professionals -local, state, federal
• Researchers
• Students
• Youth and women groups
• Religious bodies
• Concerned citizens