Jamaica News: Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, is imploring persons who need mental health support to cope during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to call the mental health response line at 888-NEW LIFE.
He made the appeal while addressing the weekly COVID Conversations digital press conference held at the Ministry’s New Kingston offices on Thursday (September 10).
Dr. Tufton was speaking against the background of World Suicide Day, which was recognised globally on Thursday.
He said statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that someone in the world takes their own life every 40 seconds, with about 800,000 suicides in a given year.
“It is a sober moment when you consider persons who take their own lives for various reasons. It’s something that we want to discourage,” Dr. Tufton said.
“We want to encourage Jamaicans [and] those in the diaspora who, because of one challenge that they face or another, think that there are better ways to deal with those challenges, to encourage them to seek help if those thoughts were to appear,” he said.
Source: JIS News
