I LOST MY WIFE TO SUICIDE MR JOSEPH AJAL

Mr Joseph Ajal narrates how he lost his dear wife to Suicide........."Her violent mood swings when they were still dating did not set off alarm bells". And when they got married 17 years ago, Joseph Ajal and his wife whom we shall not name, settled into life with no inkling that years later, a mental illness would have a ripple effect on the family. She died on 28th March this year, taking her own life.
Every suicide is a tragedy, and to some degree a mystery.

Suicide often stems from a deep feeling of hopelessness. The inability to see solutions to problems or to cope with challenging life circumstances may lead people to see taking their own lives as the only solution to what is really a temporary situation, and most survivors of suicide attempts go on to live full, rewarding lives.

WHO recognizes suicide as a public health priority. The first WHO World Suicide Report “Preventing suicide: a global imperative”, published in 2014, aims to increase the awareness of the public health significance of suicide and suicide attempts and to make suicide prevention a high priority on the global public health agenda. It also aims to encourage and support countries to develop or strengthen comprehensive suicide prevention strategies in a multisectoral public health approach.

Suicide is one of the priority conditions in the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) launched in 2008, which provides evidence-based technical guidance to scale up service provision and care in countries for mental, neurological and substance use disorders. In the WHO Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030, WHO Member States have committed themselves to working towards the global target of reducing the suicide rate in countries by one third by 2030.