Suicide prevention centre inaugurated at FJWU

Varsity will invite experts from foreign institutions to deliver lectures on the issue

RAWALPINDI:

First of its kind in the country, a suicide prevention centre was inaugurated at the Fatima Jinnah Women University on Thursday.

The launch coincides with World Suicide Prevention Day being marked on Friday (today) across the world. Suicide is a global public health challenge, the prevention of which was declared as ‘imperative’ by the World Health Organisation because most suicides are preventable.

The center has been set up with the support of the University of Manchester with an aim to deal with the trend of suicide. The university will invite experts from foreign institutions to deliver lectures frequently.

MNA Riaz Fityana, who inaugurated the facility, said that the suicide rate in the country is rising. Therefore, its prevention is extremely important. He added that the private sector will have to come forward as the government’s actions aren’t enough to stop it.

Read Country struggles to combat rising suicides

The MNA said that there was a need to find the roots behind the rising trend of suicide, along with their solutions. The lip service would not work anymore as finding the solution to the problems of the people who attempt suicide must be resolved, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, university’s Vice Chancellor Dr Saima Hamid said that it was the first center of its kind at a university where psychologists will offer counseling session to the people. The suicide prevention center will devise a national action plan for the culmination of the practice across the country, said Dr Hamid.

A student, Shazia Sikandar, said that it is very encouraging to see that the university has set up a suicide prevention centre. “In several incidents, young people commit suicides and parents also take their lives after killing their minor children for various reasons,” she said, and hoped that the suicide prevention centre set up at the university will prove as the first drop of the rain.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2021.