A clin­i­cal so­cial work­er at­tached to the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work (IWRN), is ad­vo­cat­ing for a more strate­gic ap­proach to help those ex­pe­ri­enc­ing sui­ci­dal feel­ings. She rec­om­mends a clear plan and con­tract to pre­vent sui­cide, along with a pro­gramme of ef­fec­tive coun­selling to help peo­ple fac­ing such a cri­sis.

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment is­sued by the IWRN, four peo­ple have died by sui­cide dur­ing the past 20 days—two men and two women.

Pres­i­dent Adri­ana San­drine Isaac-Rat­tan says the or­gan­i­sa­tion is “deeply con­cerned” over the re­al­i­ty that more men and women ap­pear to be turn­ing to sui­cide as a so­lu­tion to their life’s chal­lenges.

IWRN’s Clin­i­cal Ther­a­pist, Meld­ri­na Bernard, not­ed that the or­gan­i­sa­tion pro­vides coun­selling and ther­a­peu­tic sup­port to those bat­tling men­tal health is­sues and sui­ci­dal ten­den­cies.

“Sui­ci­dal feel­ings emerge when in­di­vid­u­als feel over­whelmed, help­less, hope­less, ashamed and fear­ful, along with oth­er vari­ables,” she ex­plained.

Bernard, a Trinida­di­an-born and US-based li­censed Clin­i­cal So­cial Work­er, is ar­gu­ing for a more strate­gic in­ter­ven­tion to help those ex­pe­ri­enc­ing sui­ci­dal feel­ings.

“The time has come for the team re­spon­si­ble for the Na­tion­al Sui­cide Hot­line to pro­vide com­mu­ni­ty psy­cho ed­u­ca­tion about the top­ic,” she as­serts, “and to al­so en­cour­age af­fect­ed cit­i­zens to call the hot­line.”

“Fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends of sui­ci­dal vic­tims al­so need to lis­ten to the vic­tim,” Bernard points out, “and en­cour­age sup­port from the po­lice, church and the gen­er­al com­mu­ni­ty.”

Isaac-Rat­tan is urg­ing in­di­vid­u­als who may be hav­ing sui­ci­dal thoughts to reach out to the IWRN via its Face­book page, at https://www.face­book.com/IWRN1