Crisis helpline centre Batiweti urges corporate bodies to commit to supporting work
THE chief executive officer for the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation (FCEF) yesterday urged all corporate bodies to commit to supporting the work carried out by Lifeline Fiji.
Lifeline Fiji team leader Jeremaia Merekula highlighted the frequency of suicide cases in Fiji during his presentation at the Top Executives (TOPEX) Conference 2022 that was held at the Shangri-La Yanuca Island over the past two days.
Mr Merekula said this year, the
Fiji police recorded 98 suicide cases compared with 61 last year.
“We in Fiji have the highest number of suicides in the Pacific. About 80 per cent of calls that we get at Lifeline Fiji is from people who are in the working population,” he said.
He said the number of calls to Lifeline Fiji had doubled this year with majority of the issues being related to financial constraints, relationship issues and stress.
“In order to raise awareness on this, Lifeline Fiji has come up with corporate training packages where our people visit the businesses and corporate houses to raise awareness on mental health at the workplaces.”
FCEF chief executive Kameli Batiweti yesterday shared that during the height of the pandemic, Lifeline Fiji’s volunteers were getting phone calls from people who needed serious help in terms of counselling and these volunteers sometimes had to use whatever meagre allowances they received to travel to these individuals and persuade them against committing suicides.
“Whatever allowances these volunteers get was at times used in paying for their fares in such cases,” said Mr Batiweti.
He said they had discussed with the Ministry of Health to work with the private sector and to encourage them to contribute at least $200 a month towards Lifeline Fiji for us to be able to provide services to those who needed it.
Whatever allowances these volunteers get was at times used in paying for their
fares in such cases
– Kameli Batiweti