NIMHANS launches suicide prevention model ‘Suraksha’ along with Karnataka govt

Under the model, the medical and paramedical staff at the primary health centres (PHCs) will be trained to identify people with suicidal tendencies so that they could be counselled.

By: Express News Service

Bengaluru | February 23, 2023 07:59 PM IST

3 min read

With the state government, NIMHANS and Himalaya Wellness Company Thursday launched a community-based suicide prevention model titled Suraksha. (File)

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With an aim to improve access to mental health in the districts of Karnataka, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in collaboration with the state government and Himalaya Wellness Company Thursday launched a community-based suicide prevention model titled Suraksha (surveillance system to track suicide and self-harm) in Channapatna taluk of Ramanagaram district.

Under the model, the medical and paramedical staff at the primary health centres (PHCs) will be trained to identify people with suicidal tendencies so that they could be counselled. The pilot programme will assess the feasibility and acceptability of community-based suicide prevention programmes and their cost-effectiveness across varied nodal stakeholder groups involving farmers, laborers, daily wage workers, student communities, media professionals and women groups.

NIMHANS also plans to scale the project to the state level in the future.

Dr Anish V Cherian, Associate Professor of Department of Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS and the principal investigator of project SURAKSHA, said, “The Government of India has put forward the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to address the issue of suicide, and project SURAKSHA is an indigenised comprehensive community-based model that is in line with the National Suicide Prevention Strategy and the WHO guidelines of ‘LIVE LIFE’. The PHCs will be trained to identify vulnerable people with suicidal tendencies and facilitate counselling.”

He said that the project will be implemented in three phases: analysing the existing comprehensive suicide prevention programmes and current public health situation in the districts, workshops to develop culture/region-specific interventions, and implementation of the interventions.

“Suicide is a multifactorial cause of mortality across all stages of a person’s life, with almost one million suicide deaths each year worldwide. According to a National Crime Report Bureau (NCRB) report 2021, Karnataka reported 13,056 suicides in the said period, a 6.5% increase from the year 2020, which accounts for 8% of the total suicides in India, and the rate of suicide in Karnataka is at 19.5%, which is higher than the national average of 12%. As a preliminary phase, we aim at developing an indigenised research model of suicide prevention in the Channapatna taluk of Ramanagara district in Karnataka State, with a comprehensive surveillance system in the community that would include early identification, crisis intervention, and referral system,” NIMHANS said in a statement.

Dr Pratima Murthy, director, NIMHANS, said, “Suicide prevention efforts require coordination and collaboration among multiple sectors of society. These efforts must be inclusive and integrated as no single approach alone can make an impact on an issue as complex as suicide. With an increased focus on mental wellness initiatives in Karnataka, we are confident that project SURAKSHA will provide the much-needed momentum in the first phase and reach out to various stakeholder groups.”

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Uma Mahadevan, additional chief secretary of rural development and panchayat raj department, Karnataka, said, “Suicide imposes a great burden on the development of our country. As we know, the treatment gap for mental health issues is considerable. In view of the shortage of mental health professionals to cater to the needs of the growing population, projects like SURAKSHA can bring out comprehensive sustainable models and the opportunity for community involvement can be well utilised.”

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