translated from Spanish: National Health Survey: 1,800 people die each year from suicides and 20.6% are young people between the ages of 20 and 29

National Health Survey: One thousand 800 people die each year from suicides and 20.6% are young people between the ages of 20 and 29. This Tuesday marks the World Day for Suicide Prevention and that’s why The Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, reported the results of the National Health Survey.According to the survey two out of ten people in Chile have mental health problems and 800 people commit suicide annually, leading to a five-death rate per day. 20.6% of these are young people between the ages of 20 and 29. In addition, for every woman who takes her own life in that age range, five. The undersecretary explained that Chile remains above the OECD average in the suicide rate. Daza stated that “this is a public health problem, which has to be addressed as a public health measure and that’s what we’re working on.” The National Health Survey also included the ideation and planning of suicides where the data indicated that 2.2% of the population, i.e. 323,000 people have ever seriously thought about suicide. While 1.5% “have ever made a plan to kill themselves in the last 12 months.” As a result, Daza said that “the numbers are very alarming, if we see that there are 220 thousand people who in a year have planned to commit suicide””The truth is that we know that people with depression, have suicidal ideation 26 times more and 36 times more the attempt to rea A suicide,” he later regretted, explaining that “we have worked on a decree to make suicide a mandatory reporting disease.” This means that all health facilities are required to report to the health authority any attempted suicide or intentionally inflicted injury.”

Original source in Spanish