The Star reported that the cases of suicide is on the rise in Malaysia. In the past 3 years, more that 1000 people had taken their own life. However the rate is still very low compared to the global average.
The Malaysian current rate is 1.3 per 100,000 person or 0.0013%. The global average is 16 per 100,000 person or 0.016%. The figure should be taken with caution, as is collated from the hospital post mortems, which means that the deaths not referred and post-mortemed at hospitals are not included in the data.
The statistic revealed that:
- The age group id between 24 and 44 years.
- The men outnumbered the women.
- The racial composition seem biased..
- Chinese 48%
- Indian 21%
- Malay 18%
The Malaysian racial composition is roughly, Malay 55%, Chinese 30% and Indian 12%.
Facing the increase trend, The Health Ministry has launch a five year program of Suicide prevention strategic Plan to curb the rise. It will focus on the community centred approach, a shift from the previous approach clinical treatments at the hospitals.
Currently, the government has 224 psychiatrists with the ratio of 1:150,000. The ideal is 1:50,000. The means, with present population size, the increase will be 3 folds.
