7 Malaysians kill themselves every day

Suicides are taking a terrible toll on Malaysians with nearly 1,700 lives lost between January and Aug 31 this year.
The Health Ministry estimates an average of seven suicides a day nationwide, a figure that does not indicate the true impact on the nation.
The reality is this: Every suicide directly or indirectly affects 12 family members and friends leading to nearly 30,000 Malaysians traumatised by suicides annually.
The ministry’s health education division senior assistant director Wan Rokman Wan Yaacob said the most common forms of suicide in Malaysia were poisoning with pesticides and herbicides, hanging, jumping from buildings and drowning.
"Recently, carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes of vehicles has been increasing," he told the New Straits Times in an interview in conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day 2005, which Malaysia is observing tomorrow.
He attributed suicides to many complex and inter-related causes including poverty, unemployment, loss of loved ones, breakdown in relationships and a family history of suicide.
Other reasons included alcohol and drug abuse, history of physical and sexual abuse, social isolation and mental illness such as depression as well as serious physical ailments.
According to him, suicides occurred when emotional pain brought on by stress factors exceeded the ability to cope.
Wan Rokman said early identification and treatment of mental disorders was an important strategy in preventing suicides.
He added that educating primary healthcare workers in identifying and treating those with mood disorders may help reduce the suicide rate.
This could also be achieved by increasing availability of family and peer support, improving access to psychiatric help, counselling, helpline services and school-based intervention.
He said early detection of school children with emotional, behavioural and academic problems could help them cope with such problems.
On the effect of media coverage of occurrences of suicides, he said that there was a link that had been identified some time ago.
He said there was evidence that sensational reporting with details of methods used in suicide could lead to imitation suicides.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that at least one person commits suicide a day in Singapore with an average of 13 a day in Thailand.
Source