On the occasion of the recent commemoration this September 10 of the International Suicide Prevention Day, several preventive and health promotion activities were carried out in Holguin province, with the purpose of creating awareness in the communities of the territory that this scourge can be prevented.
According to the specialist of the Department of Health Promotion and Education in Holguin province, Master of Science Martha Yanara Santos Velazquez, “since August different activities have been developed, mainly together with the University Student Federation of the University of Medical Sciences of Holguin. We carried out a course for health promoters from August 21 to 25, in which took part a group of students of Medicine, Nursing, Microbiology and Clinical Bioanalysis.
Health promoters
The students received training to become health promoters, who have extended all the activities aimed at suicide prevention. In this way we include them in this action, in order to create hope, different dynamics have been developed with the students in the community to really reinforce self-esteem, self-worth, conflict resolution and to be able to develop in each person protective factors to really face the stressful situations of everyday life”.
suicide, Holguín
In the main event held in Máximo Gómez Báez Park, in La Aduana district of Holguin city, these health promoters, who recently graduated from the summer courses, played an essential role. Elaine Cruz Cobas, one of them, commented: “we gathered here to commemorate the World Suicide Prevention Day and we have carried out a community intervention where we brought different educational, sports, cultural activities and we certified our students who received a summer course as health promoters where they acquired knowledge and skills in topics such as suicide prevention. Teenage pregnancy will also be the subject of another activity that will be planned for September. With that we want to integrate several sectors and organizations in the communities as the CDR, the FEU, the INDER, mental health specialists to deal with topics of global importance and of local incidence in Holguin”.
suicide, Holguin
Acting as a society to prevent suicide
Global data indicate that approximately every 40 seconds a person commits suicide and for each death there are 20 attempts, figures that show the need to act as a society to avoid this complex problem.
As for its behavior in Cuba, the province of Holguin is among the first three in the country with the highest suicide rate, due to historical-cultural issues, population density and complex social problems.
suicide, Niuris Ricardo
Dr. Niuris Ricardo, mental health specialist at the DPS. Photo: Maylín Betancourt
In this regard, Dr. Niuris Ricardo Díaz, mental health specialist at the Provincial Health Directorate, explains that “after the COVID-19 pandemic, suicidal behavior has increased in the world, that is, it is a global trend and our country was also greatly affected by it.
This behavior is due to biological, psychological, economic and social consequences as a result of that pandemic. This also brought with it an increase in problems at the community level and in suicidal behavior itself, with figures higher than those we had before the year 2020.
Holguin territories with the highest incidence
The municipalities with the highest suicide rate are Calixto García, Rafael Freyre, Banes, Cacocum, Báguanos and Holguín, i.e., those close to the provincial capital, while those in the East show a lower suicide rate. In this behavior there is a predominance of the older adult age group, those over 60 years old and more acute in the group of 65 years old and older”.
suicide
Source: www.scaled.com
In the province of Holguín, the health sector is working on the implementation of a strategy designed with four essential components: health promotion and prevention, teaching and research, medical care and rehabilitation, and control actions.
Health promotion is strengthened in the different health areas where medical science students participate, certified as promoters to work on risk factors. It is also important to work on risk factors such as addictions, inadequate lifestyles, depression in the elderly, compensation for chronic mental illnesses, whether neurotic, psychotic or psychopathic personality disorders.
It is advisable to work with older adults who live alone, to carry out actions at the community level as messengers or social workers who work in the attention to the needs of these older adults. It is in Primary Health Care where people with suicidal risk, classified as low, medium and high risk, are treated, which allows differentiating care by specialists in psychology and psychiatry, who interconsult these cases and follow up on the most complex ones.
Each life taken by suicide translates into a parent, child, friend or acquaintance that we will no longer see. Suicide prevention should be a priority for public health, in the hope of not losing any life to suicide.
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