MACAU (UCAN): Macau recorded the highest number of suicides in a decade, prompting authorities to urge residents to help those around them while assuring assistance from government mechanisms, according to a January 30 press release from the Macau Health Services, the Portuguese-language daily, Ponto Final, reported on January 31.
The territory recorded 88 suicide cases in 2023, a 46.6 percent increase compared to 60 cases in 2021. In 2013, the territory had reported 68 deaths due to suicide.
The health department urged the residents to assume an active role as a “suicide prevention advocates.”
It said, “To reduce the incidence of suicide, residents should contact, communicate, and care more about the people around them.”
Residents were also advised to know about their neighbours’ “daily lives and encourage those who are experiencing emotional problems to actively seek professional help.”
In its report, the health department revealed that 26 suicides were recorded in the last quarter of 2023, which was the highest number recorded compared to the same period in the previous years.
The health department reported that the major causes were chronic or physiological illness, and gambling or financial problems.
In 2019, 66 suicides were reported.
The causes of suicide are complex and often involve mental illness, psychological, socio-economic, family, human relations and biological genetic factors
Macau Health Services
“The causes of suicide are complex and often involve mental illness, psychological, socio-economic, family, human relations and biological genetic factors,” the report said.
The health department reiterated its stand that it aims to increase the accessibility of mental health-related services and extend its social support network to effectively arrest the gradually increasing suicide numbers.
It said that it aims to mobilise the “whole of society, through families, schools and the community, to pay joint attention and forward information on their own initiative.”
Support from society can help the competent services “intervene quickly and eliminate potential risks,” the health department said.
The department also pointed out that it was giving financial and technical support to distressed citizens through various institutions including the General Union of Macau Residents’ Associations and the Macau General Women’s Association.
Community psychological counselling institutions are being set up with the help of various organizations to support people with mental problems, it said.
The health department added that it is committed to “promoting and deepening the training of [mental health] advocates to prevent suicide in the community,” and increasing public awareness of suicidal attitudes.
