Suicides in Azerbaijan: we approach the critical norm

As it turned out, he was recently expelled due to debts from the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University, wrote poetry, shared his thoughts about life in social networks. Apparently, he planned to commit suicide in advance and even chose a place for this. Because on January 6, in the afternoon, he wrote in the social network stating that there are 52 hours and 2 minutes left before X. He came to the boulevard an hour before the fateful step, photographed the place chosen for this, left a jacket on the shore with documents, posted in the social network along with the last poem. Then at 16:45 he rushed to the sea. His body was found. Friends of the poet are in shock from what has happened.

Late in the evening of the same day Rashad Mustafazade, born in 1995, rushed under a train at the station "Ulduz". Before that, according to eyewitnesses, he shouted out the words about what was planned, but none of the passengers paid any attention to this, did not try to dissuade him from the terrible step.

Qafqazinfo reports, the young man was very active in social networks. He knew several foreign languages, worked in a travel agency, a few days ago organized a tour to Gabala. However, on the same day, another fact of suicide was documented. In the village of Guzanli, in Agdam region, the 66-year-old Hikmet Jabiyev hanged himself in the courtyard of the house where he lived. The reasons for the three suicides are still unknown. Facts are being investigated.

The number of suicides in Azerbaijan continues to grow, as evidenced not only by media reports of suicides, but also official statistics. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, an average of 500 suicides are recorded annually in the country. In recent years, this indicator varies between 430-520 facts. For comparison: in 2009, there were 378 facts of suicide, in 2014 - 430, in 2015 - 512 such cases. Data for the past year have not yet been made public.

According to the psychologist Azad Isazadeh, the dynamics of suicide growth is evident. The process indicates that in our society there are serious problems - social, economic, personal, psychological. All this, individually or collectively, leads a person to the edge of the abyss. "It is the absence of the meaning of life and loneliness that pushes people to the extreme step. Life in modern society makes people estranged, far apart.

Therefore, often there are crisis situations, when no one is around. The trouble is that we do not have any work to prevent suicide, the government does not take any measures in this direction. It is necessary to develop recommendations for various groups of the population on how to recognize a potential suicidal. In particular, such benefits should be created for parents, adolescents, educators, the elderly, companies that are in a crisis situation and are going to reduce part of the staff, etc.," the specialist points out.

However, the department of urgent psychological support of the Center for Mental Health of the Ministry of Health, Kamal Talibov, does not consider the situation to be alarming and dramatic.

According to her, in Azerbaijan the level of suicides is below the critical norm. In the world such a rule is seven suicides per 100 thousand people. In our country, this figure is five suicides. For example, in the Baltics this figure is 39, in Russia - 27, in Switzerland - nine. In Azerbaijan, this indicator is quite low.

Following this logic, it is necessary to wait for Azerbaijan to step over this "critical line". Is the observed trend not a serious reason for taking preventive measures? Which ones? Expand the network of psychological care centers throughout the country (people commit suicide and in the provinces - author), create hospices for cancer patients, so that they do not put their hands on despair and unbearable pain, provide secondary schools with professional psychologists who will be able to recognize a potential suicide- schoolchildren, open hotlines, social media advertising on this subject is also needed. There are many ideas and proposals.

It was such a comprehensive work that was carried out in the Switzerland, which our officials present us as a bad example. But it turns out, over the past 20 years the level of suicide in this European country has declined markedly. In the period between 1991 and 2015, the suicide rate in Switzerland fell from 20.7 to 9 people per 100,000 residents. People with suicidal tendencies today more often than before, turn for help - and get it.

Any pedestrian who comes to the famous bridge "Kirchenfeldbrücke" in Bern notices that a tall, two-man-tall metal net is stretched along the rails, and at the entrance to the bridge one can see a bright poster with the inscription "STOP" and advice in the presence of psychological and other problems to apply for help in a special service through a toll-free hotline. This is only one of the measures taken in recent years in Switzerland in the fight against suicide. And they, obviously, give positive results.

Suicide prevention programs operate in 12 cantons in Switzerland. The information, educational work has considerably increased, the service of psychological help has been modernized. Citizens have learned to think in psychological categories and understand that their problems have their deep roots. They "had concepts for articulating their psychological problems, that's why people with psychological problems today more often than before call for help.