Health Dept takes notice of frequent suicide incidents in Chitral

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has taken notice of frequent suicide incidents by the people of underdeveloped and mountainous Chitral district and decided to send health experts, including psychiatrists, to this remote region to find out the facts behind these killings and hold sessions with local residents suffering from mental illness.

Provincial Secretary Health Mohammad Abid Majeed and Director General Health Services Dr Ayub Roze told The News the decision to send health experts to Chitral was made after they constantly received reports about the growing trend of frequent suicides among the local community there.

Abid Majeed said they had constituted a four members team that would travel to Chitral in the next few days. It would visit the high-risk areas and find out facts behind suicide attempts among the local population. The team will compromise of a psychiatrist, Dr Azmat, two deputy directors of the Health Department and the District Health Officer of Chitral, Dr Israr.

Dr Ayub Roze said the Chitral district administration had already been informed and taken into confidence about the initiative.

He said nobody had done thorough research about suicide attempts in Chitral but as per their information, 21 people had ended their lives in 2017 and 12 cases were reported this year, 2018. Among these 12 suicide deaths, he said seven were male and five were females.

According to Dr Ayub Roze, most of the people reported having committed suicides were between 18-23 years. “There are multiple reasons what we have heard so far. By sending this team to the area, we want to learn exactly what are the facts and reasons which were forcing the usually peaceful people into taking their lives,” said the Health and Services head. He said the population is very scattered in Chitral and it would not be possible for the health experts to visit each and every village but they would prefer the doctors to visit the high-risk areas.

Dr Ayub said besides collecting information and facts about suicide attempts, the doctors would take some sessions with local residents and inform them about different reasons that usually lead towards frustration and mental illness.