The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net 

MORE than 17,000 Bahamians “seriously considered” attempting suicide in the last year, according to the Ministry of Health’s recently conducted STEP survey.

This figure represents 6.3 percent of the adult population - although the study noted only 2.6 percent of people said they had a suicide plan.

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands yesterday described these figures as very concerning, particularly in the wake of a “seeming spate of suicides” this year.

Police suspect six people committed suicide this year. 

With just over four months left in the year, there have already been more suicides this year than the yearly total for any of the past seven years, according to The Tribune’s records.

The STEP survey, which assesses health habits and risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), was carried out in three components from January to April. Three thousand eight hundred and forty Bahamians, ages 18-69, from New Providence and six Family Islands, voluntarily participated in the survey.

Dr Sands revealed the findings during a press conference held yesterday.

“Six point three percent of the population seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year, that’s over 17,000 adult Bahamians,” Dr Sands said in his remarks. “Although only 2.6 percent planned to do so,” he added.

A survey fact sheet, also released yesterday, elaborated on these statistics.

The fact sheet noted 6.3 percent of Bahamians “seriously considered attempting suicide” with male suicide attempts being more than twice that of females. The data shows 8.7 percent of men seriously considered suicide compared with 4.1 percent of women.

The data shows that 2.6 percent of Bahamians “have made a suicide plan in the last year.” This represents 0.7 percent of men compared with 4.4 percent of women.

The survey also found a 1.8 percent suicide attempt lifetime prevalence.

“Almost two percent of Bahamians have a family member who committed suicide,” the survey noted. 

The report also provides regional and international comparisons - noting in the United States, “4.3 percent of adults have suicidal ideations; and 0.6 percent attempted suicide”.

When asked by The Tribune to address the factors contributing to these figures - as well as mental health in the country - Dr Sands pointed to a mix of stress, mental health illnesses and genetic factors.

“I don’t know if I can do it justice except to add personal thoughts informed by some of the information,” he said.

“I think that The Bahamas is a bit of a pressure cooker. We (have) a whole lot of stress: financial stress, emotional stress, family stress. Add to that mental health illnesses.

“And one of the things that we are also concerned about is the relationship between what we eat and the expression of certain genetically predetermined factors. You put that all together and shake it up and the manifestations of suicide, homicide, assault, now becomes a very real issue.

“Interestingly when we look at the number of people who have actually committed suicide, acute suicide, the numbers are relatively low,” he continued. “But to note that there are a number of people who have considered it and have actually planned it, when you put that in the context of the recent seeming spate of suicides, I think we have to be very concerned.

“Now, mental health services in the Bahamas are not where they ought to be. We have a very long way to go to develop community health programmes to the level that they should be. We have identified that as one of our priorities but we have a very long way to go.”

From 2008 to 2018, the country averaged a rate of three suicides a year, according to this newspaper’s analysis.

In July police reported investigating an apparent suicide after a teen boy was found, unconscious, hanging in a closet.

In May, police said they were investigating an apparent suicide after a woman was discovered unresponsive with injuries to her body in a residence on Falcon Crest, Eastern Estates.

In April, a man was found hanging from a beam in a closet of a residence on Haven Street off Lightbourn Street in Chippingham. A family member found the man, said to be in his mid-50s, unresponsive.

In March, two people allegedly committed suicide in separate incidents: a man at a Winton Estates residence and a woman at a residence on Paradise Island. The man, 41-year-old Dimaggio Darrell, was a father-of-four.

In February, a man was found with what police believed was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his upper body at an apartment in Kennedy Subdivision.