Last week, five of a family from Dandapauwa in Nagarjun Municipality in Kathmandu attempted suicide by consuming poison. Of them, a 33-year-old man died while receiving treatment. Another man, 41; his mother, 62; wife, 34; and their daughter, 11; are receiving treatment at a hospital.
“We are investigating the incident from multiple angles, but financial woes seem to be the chief cause,” Dinesh Mainali, a police superintendent, who is leading the investigation, told the Post. “The four who survived are out of danger.”
In Nepal, according to data provided by the police, over 19 people (7141 people in a year) commited suicide every day throughout the country in the last fiscal year. The number was 6,252 in the fiscal year 2019-2020, police statistics show.
Financial woes are one among several reasons, which have been taking the lives of many people every day, mental health experts say.
Police investigating the Nagarjun incident said that their preliminary findings show the family was under immense financial duress for a long time and the Covid-19 pandemic worsened their situation.
“The family resorted to suicide after to extricate itself from financial stress,” said Mainali. “It seems the family had run out of options.”
Suicide is a serious health problem across the world. However, suicides are preventable with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions, the World Health Organisation says.
According to experts, mental health has emerged as a major challenge in Nepal and the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation.
“We are paying little attention to mental health issues, especially suicides,” Dr Saroj Ojha, a consultant psychatric, said. “That as many as 19 people are dying by suicide says a lot as to how big the mental health issue is.”
One of the reasons for the rise in mental health issues is a lack of conversation, as people often hesitate to talk about them due to the stigma attached.
Though there is a greater acceptance that mental disorders are real and common than in the past, experts say there still is the need for more conversations and awareness.
“Think of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still fresh in our mind. We took it seriously after people started dying. We locked the entire country down,” said Ojha. “The problems will not lessen by ignoring them. We should tackle them.”
The World Health Organisation says many incidents of suicide happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, break-up in relationship or chronic pain and illness.
Suicide was the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds globally in 2019, according to the WHO report published in 2021.
“Suicide is the last resort people take to get rid of the mental stress,” said Dr Basudev Karki, a consultant psychiatrist. “Impacts of suicide will be huge on families, friends, colleagues, and communities as whole.”
As the doctors say suicide is the last resort one takes to get rid of the problems, there are thousands of people throughout the country, who have been suffering from mental health problems.
But to know who is suffering from mental health problems is not an easy task in Nepal, where people still consider mental health problems a taboo.
“People hesitate to disclose their problems, consult the experts and seek help, which is problematic in itself,” said Karki. “Authorities should launch a massive awareness drive about the problems and ensure timely care and counselling.”
For national responses to be effective, a comprehensive multisectoral suicide prevention strategy is needed.
Officials at the Ministry of Health and Population concede that knowing the people who are suffering from mental health problems and providing them the treatment and counseling is not an easy task.
“We have included medicines of mental health in essential drugs lists and have been providing them from state-run health facilities from across the country,” said Dr Phanindra Prasad Baral, chief of the Mental Health Section at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “We have been also coordinating with national as well as international agencies to provide the treatment and counseling to the patients.”
The Health Ministry has allocated 10 beds for mental health in 13 hospitals—district hospitals or provincial hospitals throughout the country in the ongoing fiscal year. The ministry has been working to provide services through mental health nurses throughout the year in 14 hospitals —two hospitals in each province, with the help of the World Health Organisation.
But despite all this, mental health problems are on the rise because the causes are complex .
“We should accept the fact that life has become complicated due to various reasons and people have been facing many problems,” said Dr Kapildev Upadhyay, former director of the Nepal Mental Hospital. “Authorities should come up with programmes to address the issue.”
