There has been an increase in attempted suicides in Tobago.
This from clinical psychologist Dr Alina Williams, who was speaking yesterday at Lowlands Mall during a World Mental Health Day event in Tobago by the Division of Health and the Tobago Regional Health Authority.
Police sources told the Express two students attempted suicide on the island last week and were recovering.
“We know that suicide is on the rise in general in Trinidad and Tobago, and what I could say is anecdotally we have the evidence that the suicide attempt rates are increasing and they are increasing significantly in a particular age group, which is in young people, so we see rising cases of suicide attempts in people from the ages of 14 to about 19,” Williams said.
She said a number of young people in Tobago were dealing with depression.
“Constantly these young people are facing pressure, they are very depressed, they are anxious and they are making more and more serious attempts on their lives; and even those that may not engage in a suicide attempt, they are engaged in self-injurious behaviour, so they are frequent incidences in schools constantly where children are cutting, where guidance counsellors are being asked to deal with cases, and even at the hospital we are seeing rising numbers of young people wanting to die, wanting to kill themselves,” Dr Williams said.
She said the data shows that prioritising mental health in the workplace actually benefits the individual and the company.
When asked to comment on bullying in Tobago, she called for the enforcement of policies.
“But one thing that I could state for sure is that we need to have effective policies in place, and these policies need to be implemented. What happens is that bullies have so much power, you know they don’t experience the direct consequences of their actions.
“The consequences are often not immediate or not commensurate with their actions, so bullies are essentially sometimes reinforced for being bullies, they end up being the cool kids, the people others are really attracted to.
“We need to have policies where there’s a clear outline for what happens in the instance of aggressive behaviour in schools, and these need to be enforced consistently so that there’s a direct link between a behaviour and the repercussions of that behaviour,” she said.