Santiago de Chile launches the largest suicide prevention program in Latin America

The singer Javiera Parra at the launch of the suicide prevention program Quédate.Metropolitan Regional Government

Before the pandemic, the center for suicide attempts at Posta Central, one of the main public emergency hospitals in Santiago de Chile, treated 30 cases a month.

Now 30 a day.

To face the mental health crisis deepened during the confinement, the Metropolitan Regional Government of the Chilean capital has presented this Thursday the suicide prevention program

Stay.

With an investment of two million dollars and a direct impact on one million people, it is the largest project for this problem in Latin America, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), cited by the local authorities present at the event. launch.

Chile is the sixth country in Latin America and the Caribbean with the highest suicide rate with nine per 100,000 inhabitants, while the average for the region is 6.2, according to World Bank figures.

The most affected profiles are the elderly, people from the LGBTI community and schoolchildren.

“We do not have the number of psychiatrists or the hours to be able to address this problem.

That is why it is so necessary to prevent it”, explains the psychiatrist Alberto Larraín, executive director of ProCultura, one of the seven foundations that work in Quédate.

The release included the music of Violeta Parra, an icon of Chilean folklore who committed suicide at the age of 50, in 1967. Her granddaughter, the singer Javiera Parra, sang

and

.

“I wanted to give it the touch of hope that the program wants to have.

Reinforce beautiful values: love, understanding, seeing the other.

is happy, she has the spirit of the campaign, bright, ”says Parra.

The psychiatrist Larraín, who invited her to participate, adds that she also did it because she “helps to understand that the answer to this problem is not just a sanctuary.

It incorporates much deeper aspects into culture, sport”.

The program will assist people in crisis through a chat run by health professionals;

will develop and implement a plan in each of the 52 municipalities of the Metropolitan Region (RM), which will include support for families after a suicide;

it will create two surveillance centers for suicide attempts, such as the one in the Central Post Office, so far the only one in the RM;

and will standardize the data linked to the topic.

The chat, available at www.quedate.cl from ten in the morning to ten at night, will serve people who are suffering a crisis.

“We know that talking about suicide in our culture is often taboo.

We do not understand how to talk about death, hold back, have a safe conversation on this topic.

The chat is not only for those who suffer, but also for family members and people who have lost someone," said sociologist Valentina Correa, director of the Fundación Para la Confianza.

The initiative complies with the guidelines that the WHO delivered to the countries to address the problem in 2021. "Countries have a negative investment in mental health because it is very slow to address and because pathologies are not seen, like most physical ones ”, explains Larrain.

Governor Claudio Orrego summoned different organizations related to mental health and suicide prevention and asked them to present a single proposal to allocate the available funds instead of competing for them.

The result was that the ProCultura, Katy Summer, Míranos, Círculo Polar, Para la Confianza, Todo Mejora and José Ignacio foundations - some experts in older adults, others in family support, others in online support - obtained two million dollars by

the efforts.

“This program will be like a Trojan horse.

We will not only talk about suicides, but also about

, about respect for sexual diversities, about the loneliness of the elderly.

It will be a very good excuse to talk about other issues that also generate pain and that leads some of them to this so dramatic thing that is suicide, ”says Orrego.

The municipalities of the Metropolitan Region have committed to devising prevention plans and in their territories, facilitating school and health infrastructure and making part of their teams available to be trained in this matter.

The program will start in 14 municipalities and will add 14 to 52 in the next two years.