Tema-Ghana, Sept. 01, GNA – The Tema Metro Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Services has joined forces with the Tema Ghana News Agency to launch a month of relentless public advocacy to mark World Suicide Prevention Day.
World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is an awareness day observed on September 10, every year, to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides, with various activities around the world since 2003.
Dr. Sally Quartey, Tema Metro Health Director, explained that WSPD was first introduced by the International Association of Suicide Prevention and noted that this year’s awareness creation is on the global theme “Creating Hope through Action”.
She explained that the Tema Metro Health Directorate considered the GNA Tema health project “Your Health: Our Collective Responsibility” as a major platform to help educate the public and promote domestic action to prevent suicides.
The weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy
Mr. Pious Tay, Mental Health Coordinator at the Tema Metro Health Directorate, speaking at the event, advised young people to place a premium on human relations rather than social technologies.
He explained that the quality of a person’s life can only be best shaped by cultivating a positive family atmosphere.
Mr. Tay revealed that children raised as timid or with melancholic characters could be addicted to social media, seeking answers to their challenges because their parents instilled fear in them.
“Families who spend time together develop a communication-friendly climate where everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions and feelings, which makes it easier for families to address and resolve concerns”.
Urging the youth to create good bonds with family members, parent figures, counsellors, and teachers and share their perils with them instead of resorting to machines.
He said the age of technology was supposed to be an advantage, but many young people, especially in basic and senior high schools, experience suicidal ideas because of their experiences depending on their orientation of life, which was mostly influenced by social media technologies.
Technology has an adverse effect on people’s emotions, especially young people who clutch to it for answers to their problems. This has a detrimental effect on the quality of interpersonal interactions.
The mental health coordinator explained that some social media’s content promotes a distorted and partially false self-image, as well as the display of false emotions, and without critical understanding, alters users’ thoughts and feelings in a negative way.
Children are more likely to speak up and be honest about their feelings when adults are open-minded, empathetic, and non-judgmental, in their opinion, because the family system is the first identification of every human.
Mr. Tay indicated that problems had the potential to cloud people’s thoughts about being suicidal; therefore, family members should make time to help children create strong mental health.
