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More efforts needed to protect people with mental health issues
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Stock illustration of shackling (Courtesy of/Shutterstock)
P
sychologists have applauded the government's recent move to create a national suicide registry and to ban shackling people with mental health issues, but they emphasized that more thorough measures are needed to better protect the vulnerable group.
The country issued late last month Government Regulation (PP) No. 28/2024 concerning the implementing regulations of the 2023 Health Law.
Among the measures outlined in the new policy is the formation of a suicide registry to record statistics on suicide attempts and deaths across the country; it is expected to include details such as the individuals’ gender, age, location, method and motive.
The data will be gathered from the databases of the National Police (Polri), Civil Registration Agencies, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) and healthcare institutions, and will be managed by the Health Ministry.
The World Health Organizations (WHO) stated that the timely registration and regular monitoring of suicide data could form the backbone of national suicide prevention efforts and strategies.
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According to Litbang Kompas, a research arm of the Kompas daily, over 1,200 people took their lives last year. The figure surged by 35 percent from 2022 and 94 percent from 2021, when authorities documented 902 and 629 suicide incidents, respectively.
