By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

FOLLOWING government’s concern over a “suicide trend,” a government-appointed task force will be investigating the country’s past suicides in an effort to determine their cause and what can be done to prevent future cases.

Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez announced yesterday that the task force – headed by leading psychiatrist Dr David Allen – is a response to the apparent increase in suicidal thoughts among Bahamians.

He was speaking at a press conference at the Ministry of Health.

“In recent years there appears to have been an increase in a number of Bahamian adults and teenagers who are considering suicide as an option,” Dr Gomez said.

“As Minister of Health, I am requesting the internationally renown psychiatrist Dr David Allen to review the suicides of the past three years and report back to me in two months with his findings.”

The age of the victims, their socio-economic background, employment, and marital status will be uncovered, Dr Gomez said, and the causative factors behind the suicides will be discussed.

The task force will also look into whether the victims or their families had sought help and what kind of help was accessible, as well as the affect the incident had on the family.

Also to be questioned – “are there any latent or covert issues related to these attempts that we as a country are not aware of,” Dr Gomez said.

“What role can the church play?” he continued. “Are these attempts related to the economic challenges in the country? Did the person have a known history of mental illness?”

There have been changes in Bahamian society, Dr Gomez noted, and the study will discern if the suicides “demonstrate a need for new coping strategies and stress management.”

“A number of factors,” he said, “will be addressed in an effort to remove suicide as an option.”

For his part, Dr Allen spoke of a recent study he completed which he said will help him going forward as head of the task force.

“The result of the study is very, very interesting because it shows for the first time we can decrease depression, decrease anger, decrease suicide, decrease shame, decrease loneliness, decrease revenge, and decrease abusive relationship and illegal activity,” Dr Allen said.

“We now have the data, evidence-based data to allow us to do a kind of intervention that really improves the de-socialisation in our country.”

This scientific research, which proves how suicidal ideas can be reduce will be combined with the data collected by the government’s new task force in an effort to aid the country, Dr Allen said.

“So taking what we’ve done and getting the data for the country, I would like to use this now to try to prevent further things from happening,” he said. “From three years ago, we saw an increase in suicide attempts, as well as people talking about wanting to hurt others... We are very angry people, right now; and these are very difficult times.”

Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin was also present for the announcement of the task force and voiced her support of the new task force and also spoke on her Ministry’s previous call for persons to seek help, if needed.

It was two weeks ago – after two people allegedly committed suicide just hours apart – that Mrs Griffin said she is very concerned about a “suicide trend” and urged Bahamians to seek help.