CHENNAI: In an attempt to break away from the dubious distinction the state holds for having a high suicide rate, the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project (TNHSP) in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Accident Care and Emergency Initiative (TAEI) and GVK EMRI launched a project in January 2019. The drive was aimed to offer counselling to those who had already attempted suicide once. The good news is that since the launch of the pilot project, there has not been a single re-attempt at the TAEI-enlisted hospitals in the state, claim the authorities.
TAEI attends to trauma, poisoning, suicide, self-harm and pediatric emergencies, in 80 government hospitals in Tamil Nadu. According to official data, the TAEI wing receives nearly 250-300 cases of suicide or self-harm in the state on a daily basis.
No reattempts
“Several studies suggest that the success rate of the second suicide attempt is higher than the first. Almost 50 per cent of the victims who attempt suicide once, do it again. Previously, we were only passively preventing suicide by attending distress calls, but nothing was done to prevent reattempts. We launched the pilot project in January at 80 TAEI-enlisted hospitals in the state to prevent this,” said an official.
From January 2019 to June 30, as many as 21,394 cases of suicide attempts were received at the 80 hospitals. According to officials, not even one of them who sought medical help, reattempted after a psychological intervention.
According to TAEI data, Villupuram, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Vellore and Chennai, are among the districts with high suicide survival rate. This means that suicide has been attempted once.
Follow-up calls
The 104 team of GVK EMRI, a helpline which offers suicide prevention counselling, is carrying out the project. All individuals who have attempted suicide and are seeking healthcare in TAEI-enlisted hospitals will be contacted for tele-counselling-based follow-up. With a minimum of nine follow-up calls, they will be contacted at regular intervals for 18 months.
“A week after the attempt, we contact the victim and talk to him/her. They can schedule the next call based on his/her convenience. This will be followed by calls on 4th, 7th, 11th, 16th and 24th weeks, and 12th and 18th month before completing the follow-up process. If they convey to the psychologist that they do not require support anymore, they can opt out of the follow-up. However, that’s rare,” said the official.
Potential trigger
Personality issues or personal problems lead to suicide attempts. When severity increases, they are prone to attempt again. One attempt is always a trigger for the second. So, continuous psychological intervention is most crucial to prevent suicides,” Dr Vivian Kapil, psychiatrist.
According to the last report by National Crime Records Bureau, released in 2015, the state has continuously accounted for nearly 12 per cent of the total suicides from 2013 to 2015. Tamil Nadu has been in the top two in the list of states with highest suicide rates for six years now.
“We began the project in TAEI hospitals to gauge its effectiveness. Later, we will expand the project in all hospitals of Tamil Nadu,” said the official.