Is your first suicidal clinic successful in Egypt?

Mohamed Seif El Din - Cairo

On a worn chair, the girl sat in the garden of the Abbasiya mental hospital (east of Cairo) and looked very tired. She began her journey with the treatment to face the suicidal thoughts she faced three years ago.

The trio, who came with her mother and older brother, was worried and bored by the length of the wait amid attempts from her parents urging her to cling to hope and not leave herself to despair.

Nermin says she tried to commit suicide more than once and in multiple ways, but she always fails at the last moment because of the vigilance of her family, according to her interview with Al Jazeera Net.

Despite suffering from a state of depression three years ago, she refused treatment because of fear of the negative mental image of most Egyptians about mental patients, saying "afraid to say crazy" to succumb recently to the desire of her parents in the need to receive treatment.

Increased suicides
In the past few months, suicide stories have increased in the local media, especially among young people. A human rights report issued by the Arab Organization for the Support of Civil Society and Human Rights monitored 39 suicides in March.

In the past few days, five girls have committed suicide in three governorates, including three from one family, and last April saw 15 suicides, according to the correspondent of Al Jazeera Net.

Egypt ranks 96th in the world in terms of suicides among young people around the world, where the number of suicide bombers exceeds 4250 suicide annually, according to a study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2017.

24.7% of Egyptians suffer from psychological problems, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in April 2018.

Government clinic
These troubling facts about the spread of the phenomenon prompted the Ministry of Health to launch a campaign entitled "Your life is worthy of recovery" included the opening of the first specialized government clinic to cope with suicide.

The campaign aims to confront the phenomenon and raise the awareness of society about the dangers of suicide and its causes and mechanisms of prevention and reduce the deaths resulting from it, as explained by Menen Abdul Maksoud, head of the Secretariat of mental health hospitals in the ministry.

The suicide clinic operates throughout the week (three days in the evening) and is free for the first time. In case of frequent visits to the clinic, the citizen pays 50 pounds (about three dollars) for each visit.

Over the past two months, the Mental Health Secretariat has received 40 calls related to suicide, mostly from Upper Egypt.

"The desire to commit suicide is a psychological disease that can be cured through several sessions with the patient that help him correct some of his misconceptions and also helps him to think about life naturally and benefit from it," says one of the psychiatrists working for the clinic, And overcome the obstacles that appear before him.

The psychological expert - in his speech to the island Net - that most of the suicides that occur among young people, especially girls are motivated to draw attention, or feeling a lack of interest from the surrounding.

Treatment experts face a major crisis because of the poor mental image of the patient. Psychologists at the Egyptian clinic recommend that their children face suicidal thoughts and help them get rid of the symptoms of suicide, such as "toxins, white weapons and ropes."

Do you succeed?
On the success of the campaign in reducing the phenomenon of suicide, psychiatrist Ahmed Abdullah believes that the services of the General Secretariat of Mental Health in Egypt are developing positively.

He explained to Al Jazeera Net that it is too early to rule on the experience now, but in the whole it deserves praise and support.

On the other hand, psychiatrist and family consultant Abeer Talat believes that reducing suicide rates depends on economic, social and political reform.

She explained in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that under the current circumstances is expected to increase rates of suicide, because of the hopelessness that hit the people after the loss of hope for a better tomorrow, he said.

In order for the country to reap the fruits of that experience alongside political, economic and social reform, the psychologist asked for the generalization of the clinic experience in Egypt because of the material cost of patients in private clinics.

Since the government's decision to float the pound by the end of 2016, prices of goods and services have been rising steadily, especially with the gradual lifting of fuel and ration subsidies. A few days ago, a World Bank report showed that 60 percent of the population was poor or at risk of poverty.