SUICIDAL BEHAVIOURS AND INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA. A RESEARCH TOPIC ON HEALTH AND KINETICS. A RESEARCH TOPICS ON HEALTH AND KINETICS
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Background to the Study
The occurrence of suicidal behaviours across the world is one of the worst public health challenges confronting humanity. Apart from the many lives that are wasted through suicide, a multitude of other lives are permanently damaged in suicide attempt. Unfortunately too, a lot of time and energy are lost every year in negative thoughts about killing oneself. According to Gvion and Apter (2013), one million persons commit suicide throughout the world and 10-20 million others engage in suicide attempt every year. Gvion and Apter projected that suicide death in the world would rise above 1.5 million by the year 2020 and the figure for attempted suicide was projected to be 10-20 times higher. They showed that the figures represented on the average one suicide every 20 seconds and one attempted suicide every one to two seconds. Wahlbeck and Makinem (2008) disclosed that 59,000 Europeans died through suicide in 2006. In the United States of America (USA) the number of suicide cases reported in the year 2007 alone was more than 34,000 (Soreff, 2013).
Suicidal behaviours are problems not only of the industrialized countries but also of the developing ones. For instance, Ogunseye (2011) indicated that Ghana recorded 21,500 cases of suicide in 2007. Nigeria, where Enugu state is located, was not among the countries that collected suicide data on routine basis. However, Ogunseye in the same report warned against the increasing rate of suicide in Nigeria. The report confirmed an alarm which was earlier on raised over the rising cases of suicidal behaviours in the country (Okafor & Okafor, 1998). Suicide reports are currently rampant in Nigeria (see Appendix A p. 151). They occurred in large numbers even among Nigerian adolescents which was extremely rare in the past. For instance, eight (18.60%) out of the 43 selected cases of suicidal behaviours reported in Nigerian media were adolescents.
