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Suicide rates on the decline in Belarus

Suicide rates in Belarus declined from 28.4 in 2009 to 26.1 per 100000 population in 2010, Syarhey Ihumnaw, director of the National Research and Development Center of Mental Health, told reporters in Minsk on Wednesday.

As many as 2,474 suicides were recorded in the country in 2010 compared with 2,730 the previous year.

"The figures are certainly tragic, but Belarus used to see 3,500 suicides annually at one time," Mr. Ihumnaw said.

Along with Russia and Ukraine, Belarus has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Lithuania where the rates reach 46 to 48 per 100000 population is the world`s leader.
A national plan was launched in 2009 to prevent suicides, Mr. Ihumnaw said, noting that 25 governmental agencies and organizations were involved in its implementation.

Mikhail Khasminsky, head of the Moscow Crisis Psychology Center, said that media coverage of suicides could provoke suicide-prone people to kill themselves as suggested by recent scientific surveys. He said that the Soviet-era practice of restricting media reporting on suicides and serial murders had positive effects.

Mr. Ihumnaw suggested that the media should focus on counseling services for potential suicide victims. However, he disagreed that suicide rates were low in the Soviet Union. Around 80,000 people committed suicide in 1984 compared with 15,000 deaths of Soviet soldiers in the Soviet War in Afghanistan, he noted. //BelaPAN