An average of 21 suicides was recorded in Malta in the past 12 years. The number could be higher for two reasons – the first is that the figure stops at June 2009, which means that it could have gone higher in the past six months. Secondly, it is not always possible to determine whether people who die after ingesting harmful liquids or from overdoses of illegal or prescribed drugs did so accidentally or intentionally.

The fact that 253 people committed suicide since 1998 should make us all think. What pushes someone to such an extreme refusal of life? What makes someone lose all hope and reach such a level of desperation? Can society help these people?

In an interview given to The Malta Independent on Sunday two weeks ago, parliamentary secretary Mario Galea said that a crisis intervention team is being set up to deal with people on the verge of killing themselves. It will be made up of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a psychiatric nurse and a social worker, all of whom are trained to take care of people in such a critical state.

Until now, it is policemen who turn up to try to persuade people not to commit suicide, and although there have been many times when they managed to “resolve” the situation, officers are not trained to deal with such circumstances. The team will be better equipped to tackle these situations, and it will also be available at Mater Dei Hospital to deal with relatives of victims of traffic, work-related and other accidents that cause sudden death.

To give some more statistics, one in every four people suffer from one form or other of mental illness during their life, but less than a third of them seek medical attention. Last year, 58,000 people committed suicide across Europe, one every nine minutes. Some 50 million Europeans suffer from mental illness. In a few years’ time, mental illnesses will be the second most common condition after cardiovascular disease.

Perfectly normal people can become mentally ill suddenly. All it takes is one bitter experience from which the person concerned is mentally incapable of recovering, and the bigger problems begin.

It is good to note that, apart from the crisis intervention team, the parliamentary secretariat is also to open a third day care centre where mentally ill people could seek assistance. One was opened in Qormi in the mid-1990s, a second one was opened in Cospicua last year and a third will be opened in Floriana in 2010.

Experience has shown that people who have received support in these day care centres did not receive treatment at Mount Carmel Hospital as frequently as they had been used to in the past, and their stays there became shorter.

It is clear that people with mental conditions often just need some attention and care to be able to overcome their predicament. Often, attempted suicides are just a call for help, a last desperate attempt from people who need support.

One big problem that needs to be overcome is the stigma that surrounds mental conditions. People do not think it over twice to say they have a heart disease or that they twisted their foot, but they find it extremely hard to open up when they have a mental problem. It is this stigma that keeps people away from seeking help, and not seeking help often leads to a worse situation as time goes by.

On the other hand, society should make things easier for these people. It should offer comfort and consolation, not gossip and ignorance.