Depression triggers 25 suicides in six months in Dubai: Police
dubai — Twenty-five people have committed suicide and 50 tried to end their lives since the beginning of this year. Sixty per cent of the suicides were driven by depression, followed by family discords (35 per cent) and financial crisis (10 per cent), it was revealed during a session themed ‘Suicide ... Causes and Methods of Prevention’ organised by the Dubai Police.
Suicide rates among the youth under the age of 30 were the highest and it was mostly the Asians who took the extreme step, it was disclosed further.
Maj Gen Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, assistant-commander-inchief of the Criminal Investigation Department, said it was found that most people ended their lives due to depression or family disputes, which force them to take drugs and painkillers. Suicide not only brings grief and sorrow to the bereaved families, but also has an economic cost, he pointed out, adding all these incidences can be prevented.
Participating in the session, Al Mansouri said the police were keen to hold meetings and workshops to discuss the causes of suicides and ways to handle them. He said in UAE, suicide is forbidden by law and modern techniques and tools of artificial intelligence can be used to protect people from external influences in taking their own lives.
Al Mansouri stressed the need for combined awareness efforts from those who are engaged in fighting this scourge. It is important to raise awareness among all members of the community, especially families, about the indicators that may lead one of their loved ones to resort to this heinous crime and help them refrain from committing it, he underlined.
Rate highest among under 30
Lt Col Rashid Abdulrahman bin Zabawi, director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said the suicide rates were highest among the youth under the age of 30. As many as 90 suicides and 101 suicide bids were recorded in Dubai in 2017.
The participants at the session discussed several topics related to suicides, while forming different groups to suggest recommendations to curb the social menace.
The first topic was that of foreigners. The groups discussed the key reasons that lead expats to suicide and methods of prevention. They also discussed how modern techniques including artificial intelligence (AI) can help in raise awareness among them. The participants also discussed issues that trigger depression in workers – the second major topic. They deliberated on the need to raise awareness among workers about laws, legislations and labour rights.
The third topic was that of children and adolescents. Those attending the session brainstormed on the key factors that may lead them this category to commit suicide with emergence of the electronic games like blue whale, and how best to protect them, and the importance of employing technology to combat the crime.
Procedures to deal with the families of victims after the tragedy were also discussed. The role of those related with the victims was taken up too.
It was also decided that a special programme must be devised to communicate with the bereaved family and carry out psychological counselling.
Captain Khaled Matar, head of networks and communication devices at Dubai Police, said ‘Blue Whale’ game has been linked to many suicides among adolescents in some countries. While explaining the details of the game, he said it targets players and drives them to inflict injuries on themselves and eventually, take their own life.
Lt Muhammad Sulaiman Al Dweiyani, head of the criminal psychology department, said ‘Blue Whale’ requires players to provide the game managers personal data about themselves so that they can extort and blackmail them later if the they decide to withdraw from the game, without completing the levels.— amira@khaleejtimes.com