S. P. MANDALI’S PRIN L. N.

WELINGKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH

SUMMER INTERNSHIP RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

ON

DATA VISUALIZATION OF SUICIDE RATES

BY

ANUSHREE BANERJEE

PGDM RBA 2019 – 21 TRIMESTER IV

SPECIALISATION: MARKETING

ROLL NO.: 03

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 CERTIFICATE

TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

1. This is to certify that Mr/Ms Anushree Banerjee, a student of S. P. Mandali‟s Prin L. N.

Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research and pursuing two years full
time Post Graduate Diploma in Management - (PGDM-), underwent two months of summer
internship research project with me from April 27th 2020 to July 22 nd 2020.

2. During the summer internship research project, Mr/Ms Anushree Banerjee has successfully
completed the project titled „Data Visualization of Suicide Rates‟ under my the guidance of
P.V. Chandrika, Assistant Professor, Research & Business Analytics.

3. The Students performance during the summer internship research project and comments on
his project work are as under:

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_______________________________________
(Signature of the Internal Faculty Mentor)

Name: …………………………………………..

Designation: …………………………………....

Date: ……………………………………………

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 NO PLAGIARISM DECLARATION BY THE STUDENT

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the project titled “Data Visualization Of Suicide
Rates”

(a) Has been prepared by me towards the partial fulfillment for the award of Post Graduation
Diploma in Management – Research and Business Analytics under the guidance of
Prof. P. V. Chandrika, S. P. Mandali‟s Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management
Development and Research, Mumbai.

(b) This work is original and has not been submitted for any degree/diploma in this or any
other Institute/Organization.

The information furnished in this dissertation is genuine and original to the best of my
knowledge and belief.

(d) I have not indulged in plagiarism. The project report has been checked for plagiarism and
output report has been attached below.

____________________________ _____________________________

Student Name Signature

Place: Date:

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to Research and Business Analytics Department at S. P.

Mandali‟s Prin L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research and to
my respected professor P.V. Chandrika for the continuous support and guidance.

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Table of Contents

APPENDIX...................................................................................................................................... vi
List of Abbreviations used ................................................................................................................ vi
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..............................................................................................................vii
SUICIDE RATES OVERVIEW ...................................................................................................... viii
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... viii
Literature Review ..............................................................................................................................ix
Objectives of study ............................................................................................................................ x
Research Design ................................................................................................................................xi
Limitations of the study .................................................................................................................... xii
Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... xiii
Results .......................................................................................................................................... xxiv
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... xxv
References..................................................................................................................................... xxvi

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 APPENDIX

List of Abbreviations used

FIR: First Information Report

G7: Group of Seven

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

HDI: Human Development Index

NCRB: National Crime Records Bureau

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

UK: United Kingdom

UN: United Nations

US: United States

UT: Union Territories

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

After a long time, world leaders are now recognizing the importance of mental health and
well being. This was the reason behind including the topic of mental health in one of the
United Nations‟ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the general assembly held
in September 2015. One of the major issues which the world was facing because of mental
health was, people committing suicides. In spite of being a public health problem which can
be largely prevented, it still continues to claim lives. These growing numbers can be curbed if
people don‟t hesitate to seek professional help. Seeking professional help has still not been
accepted in the society and there is a stigma associated with it. There are many factors which
have been associated with suicide such as country‟s economic factors, biological factors,
social and cultural factors. However the results show us that social factor was the major one.
It is important to note that many people who complete suicide have not undergone any
psychiatric diagnosis. Despite extensive research which has been carried out over the time,
we have not been able to understand in totality that what and how these factors integrate to
evoke suicidal tendencies. The research in the area of suicide becomes more imperative now
when the whole world is dealing with the corona virus pandemic. There are chances that
people may succumbing to the tension and distress caused by the virus on the income and
lifestyle of the individuals. Not everyone is competent to deal with tough times. The
visualization further tells us that for a good number of cases people don‟t share what they are
going through and therefore for most of the cases the causes of suicides are unknown even
after investigation. If a person wants to take some professional assistance, the high cost may
prevent him/her from proceeding further. As a preventive measure, there should me more
awareness created about mental health amongst the people. Insurance policies can be
introduced to cover mental health treatment more efficiently, so that the one suffering may
not have to worry about the expenses.

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 SUICIDE RATES OVERVIEW

Introduction

The word suicide derives from two Latin words „sui‟ and „caedere‟ which together means to
„kill oneself‟. When one ends their own life, intentionally, we say that they “died by suicide.
Committing suicide was prevalent in ancient times and in every culture. All through the ages,
suicide has been glorified, romanticized, bemoaned, and even condemned. In our ancient
Indian history, suicides were classified into two types: ordinary and religious. However in
modern Indian society, suicide is a criminal offence under Section 309 which states that
“whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of
such offence, should be punishable with imprisonment for a term of one year or with fine, or
with both”. In rest of the world, some countries see it as a crime while some have
decriminalized it, but the act is still stigmatized and discouraged. Having said that, we still
see that the number of suicide case rising, by every passing year. The analysis of suicide
numbers and its causes becomes more important because apart from the number recorder
there are many more cases which go unnoticed, unreported including the failed attempts.
Therefore, it becomes much more imperative to find the causes and risk factors associated to
suicides so that we can prevent it from the very basic level.

This report attempts to find the trends of the suicide in the world and the causes of suicides in
India. Data visualization techniques are used to highlight the major causes of suicides in India
and how can we make an attempt to curb the same. An increasing number of suicides should
be a signal for the society and for the government that we should be more sensitive towards
the people and also identify if there are any potential risks associated with any person.

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Literature Review

Many studies have been done on suicide and its causes. While most of them relate it to
mental health of an individual and sociological factor, there are few who have studied its
relation with the economic factors of the country. In an article by Hannah Ritchie, Max Roser
and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina[1] mention that Globally, close to 800,000 people die from suicide
every year. Due to the stigma, which is associated with suicide in the society – and the fact
that it is illegal in few countries – this figure is also likely to be an underestimate, where
some suicides are given the name of unintentional injuries. Lakshmi Vijayakumar in her
research paper on suicide in India, [2] mentions that the suicide rate of India is 10.3. In the last
three decades, the suicide rate has increased by 43% however the male to female ratio has
been stable at 1.4: 1. 71% of suicide in India is by persons who are below the age of 44 years
which imposes a huge social, economic and emotional burden. In an article[3] published on
25 April 2005 in International Journal of Epidemiology, a study conducted on Danish
national longitudinal registers suggest that the people living in urbanized areas are at a greater
risk of suicide than their counterparts in rural areas. However, this increased risk is
eliminated when adjusted for personal marital, income, and ethnic differences. In a paper
published by Mohsen Naghavi[4], estimated from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016
and describe patterns of suicide mortality globally, regionally including 195 countries and
territories by age, gender, and Socio-demographic index, and to describe trends between 1990
and 2016. The outcome of this research was that total number of casualties from suicide
increased by 6.7% worldwide over the 27 year study period. Also, Suicide was among the top
10 leading causes of deaths in Eastern Europe, central Europe, western Europe, central Asia.
The numbers for Men were higher than for women across countries, and age groups, except
for the 15 to 19 age group. Another important index to which suicide is related to is the
Human Development Index (HDI). HDI is an index which is used to measure the economic
and social development of a country. HDI is calculated by evaluating factors such as Gross
National Income, Life Expectancy, Expected years of schooling etc. There can be ways to
curb the suicide rates. The most effective and the efficient way are to go for counselling and
psychotherapy. However, there are studies done to use the digital technologies and analytics
in suicide prevention. In the research paper [5] on „Digital Suicide Prevention‟, the author
suggests that we can analyze the past data which has been collected over the years and predict
the potential threats based on that. This analysis will help to quantify the risk factor

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associated with every individual and instantaneous risk based on current acquired
information. The author also suggests the use of modern gadgets such as smart phones and
smart watches which can track a person and can be helpful in case of any incoming threats.

Objectives of study

The Objectives for this study was to analyze the suicide rate trends for the given 101
countries in the dataset for the year 1985 to 2015. It also included finding the top countries
which has the highest suicide rate and reason behind it. Also, to find the reasons for sharp rise
in the trend of suicide during period of 1998 – 1990 and 1992 – 1996.

The objective of this study was to analyze if the economic condition of a country is the major
cause of suicide or it can be just one of the many reasons. The intention behind this study was
to increase the knowledge and thus warning signs for suicide, how to deal with it and to take
corrective and preventive actions. We should be able to promote the effective programs the
increases prevention from the risk of suicide. The idea behind this study was also to
encourage individual to be sensitive towards people suffering from mental health issue and be
supportive rather than discouraging such people.

The adverse conditions can take a toll on the mental well being of a person and therefore it
becomes more imperative now, to understand and take corrective measures to avoid any case
like suicide in future.

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Research Design

The following steps (modules) were performed in order to arrive at results:

Data Collection:
In this study two datasets have been taken. Dataset1 gives us the information about the world
suicide rate whereas Dataset2 details the suicide information about Indian states and union
territories (UT).
The Dataset1 used for this project was taken from Kaggle, posted as „Suicide rates overview
1985 to 2016‟ in the form .csv file. Dataset represents the suicide rate for 100 countries,
recorded over a period of 1985 to 2015. This dataset tries to give the relationship of the
suicide with economic background of the respective country like GDP, HDI and population.
There are 27820 data points for different countries.
Dataset2 is taken from data.world which represents the suicide rates in different states and
union territories of India from 2001 to 2012. The dataset also enlists the causes of suicide, the
means adopted for suicide and professional profile of the people associated with it. There are
237519 data points in the dataset.

General View of Dataset 1:

 country: Name of the countries.

 year: Year of the data.
 sex: Gender of the people.
 age: Age group of the people.
 suicides_no: Number of suicides in that population.
 population: The total number of people in the given country in a given year.
 suicides/100k pop: Suicide rate per 100,000 population
 country-year: Combnation of country and year columns.
 HDI for year: HDI data for one year for the given country.
 gdp_for_year ($): GDP data for one year(GDP: Gross Domestic Product)
 gdp_per_capita ($): GDP data per capita
 generation: Generation information of the age group

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General View of Dataset 2:

 State: Data has details about then 28 states and 7 union territories.
 Year: Year of the data.
 Type_code: Details of the causes, method, professional profile related to suicide
 Type: Details related to the Type_code column
 Gender: Gender of the people.
 Age_group: Age group of the people
 Total: Total number of cases corresponding to the type in the given state/UT

Visualization:
Different graphs are plotted to understand the relationship between the given variables in a
better way. Treemaps, bar charts were plotted with various factors. Data Visualization helps
to get a bigger and a better picture of the data and understand the important variables which
may go unnoticed with the huge amount of data. From the graphs we come to know that how
suicide rates are increasing and what are the leading causes.

Further, a qualitative analysis was done on the leading causes and the corrective measures
which can be implemented to reduce the numbers.

Limitations of the study

The search strategies included the keyword search for the related research papers and
therefore it may not have captured all the relevant studies done in this field. The database
selected for study may not have captured all the potential factors and the same can be added
to get a clearer picture. Also an in depth research can be conducted with a psychiatrist and
psychologist to gain more insights regarding the topic related to mental health and who can
be vulnerable and how to identify them. Also, the dataset covers only 101 countries of the
world. To get a clear picture of the suicide rate, data related to all the countries can be
analyzed. Dataset1 has information till 2015 and Dataset 2 has till 2012. Further studies can
take numbers for more recent years to see the latest trend.

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Analysis

Suicide rate trend for 101 countries from 1985 to 2015

The general trend which has been observed in the number of suicides in the world has
increased from 1988 to 1990 and it shows a slight decline towards 2003 onwards. If we
divide the given years into three decades i.e. from 1985-1995 as decade1, 1995-2005 as
decade2 and 2005-2015 as decade 3 we observe that for the decade1 the suicide sates show
an increasing trend and there are sharp increases from 1988 – 1990 and another increase from
1992 – 1996. In decade2 we observe that there are no sharp rises in the numbers and the
graph more or less remains flat as compares to the previous decade. For decade3 we majorly
see a downward trend in the rate of suicide. The reason for the worldwide downward trend
was, that during this period more and more awareness was created regarding this and various
governments acknowledge this public health issue and took measures to prevent it. To
understand what more could be done to reduce the rate further, we analyzed further for
decade3 on the basis of the highest countries, age group and gender division.

Fig1. Suicide trends in the world

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Country with highest suicide rate for the decade 2005 to 2015

For the last decade given in the dataset i.e. from 2005 to 2015, US, Russia and Japan are the
countries with highest suicide rates (Fig2.). These are the countries which lie in very different
geographic locations from one another but have the same public health problem of suicides.
They also have different cultures and ethnicity. These top three countries were taken for the
further analysis with respect to population and generation.

Fig2.Suicide Rate for countries from 2005 to 2015

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Suicide Rate vs. Population for Russia, US and Japan

Population do not have a direct relation with suicide. However, with increase in population,
there are good chances of other issues cropping up such as unemployment, unavailability or
scarcity of resources. Therefore, analysis of population becomes important. This may not be a
direct and a major reason, but may help us in understanding the suicide rate for some
countries.

The suicide rate from the countries above i.e. US, Japan and Russia were selected, and were
analyzed with its respective population for the period 2005-2015. For Japan and Russian
Federation, the population from 2005 to 2015 has remained almost constant and the suicide
numbers have shown a slight declining trend. Whereas, for the United States the suicide rates
have increased with the increase in population. The decline in the suicide rate can be because
of the population control in the countries for the decade. This can be because of the simple
fact that more population then more probability of people committing suicide. However this
should not be considered as a dominant factor because it largely depends on the individual,
his social, cultural, mental, physical and environmental background

Japan‟s reduction in suicide rate can be credited to a nongovernmental organization called

LIFELINK in association with the parliament in May 2015, created a forum and devised a
comprehensive proposal to prevent suicide. This initiative got a good media coverage as well.
The government also introduced various policies for suicide prevention which collective
proved effective in reduction of suicide.

For US, the fist plan to address suicide prevention i.e. National Action Alliance for Suicide
Prevention was drafted in 2001 however, there were no further actions until 2010. There was
lag in launching this encouraging step against suicide prevention.

The response in tackling this mental health problem shows in the results, and is the reason
why in one country the trend is downward while in another country it is upward,

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 Fig.3 Population vs. Suicide rates

Generation wise analysis of the suicide rate for US, Russia and Japan

The people who were born from the 1900 to 1924 period are referred to as the G.I.
Generation. Those who were born in the period of 1925 to 1945 are known to be from the
Silent Generation. Born in the period of 1946 to 1964 are called as Baby Boomers and those
born in from 1965 to 1979 are referred as the Generation X. People born in 1980 to 2000 are
referred as the Millennials or the Generation Y and people born after 2000 to 2015 are known
as the Generation Z.

The generation based analysis becomes important as every generation is different from its
previous generation. They have a different value system and characteristics. For e.g.
Generation X values individualism and are ambitions and nature, the Millennials are self
confident and are aware of their civic duty where as baby boomers want equal rights and
personal gratification. If we analyze the generation which has high suicide numbers, it will be
easy to spot the disparity and fill in the gaps.

xvi
In the below representation, the data was taken for the 3 countries i.e. US, Japan and Russian
Federation. The suicide rate in the silent is more in Japan where as the numbers for Boomers
and Generation X in higher in Russia and US.

For Japan, it had single minded focused on the economic growth of the country which left
behind families and communities leaving the population trapped in the pain of increasing age
and declining births. The old generation feels isolated with no one to take care of.

However the story is different for Russia and US, where the middle age generation cannot
cope with the extreme pressure of the fluctuating economic condition, which in turn affects
their personal life.

Fig.4 Generation wise analysis

Suicide rate for „Economically Developed‟ G7 countries

The trend in suicide over the years was plotted for G7 countries (Fig5). G7 countries is a
group of seven major developed countries of the world namely: Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. These are the countries which are worlds top
advance economies of the world. Certain disparity can be seen in the top economies of the
world when it comes to the suicie trends. Between the 7 countries, US and Japan have high

xvii
suicide rates where as Canada Italy and UK have the lowest numbers. This can be an
indicator that economic factors are not soley resposible for the suicide rates of the country.
There are other factors which has to be looked beyond the economic factors.

Fig5. Suicide rate trends in G7 countries

The above data set indicated the suicide rate trend certain countries of the world but it cannot
be generalized for Indian scenario. The suicide rate trend in India is little different from that
of the world. For e.g. India is amongst the highest youth suicide rates in the world or the
suicide of married woman is more in India as compared to that of the world. To address the
issues specific to India, dataset related to India has been taken to get a better idea of the
scenario.

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Comparison of age group wise analysis of India with the world

From the age group wise analysis (Fig.6) we see that in the world, the age group of 35 to 54
is more vulnerable to suicides followed by the 55-74 age group. However, when it comes to
India the age group is slightly on the lower side i.e. from 15-44.

The reason to this can be attributed by the happiness curve explained by Vineeth John,
Professor and vice chair for education in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at the McGovern School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science
Center at Houston. According to John, people tend to start their lives happy, but that
contentment begins to fade off around the age of 18 and thereafter reaches a low in the 40s,.
In the 50s, happiness levels again begin to rise and keep going up and may drop in the final
years of life. Professor John further adds that this drop in the happiness level can be because
of Instability in the workplace, mid age crisis, relationship crisis such as divorce or death of
spouse and relatives or chronic illness.

The scenario in India is little bit different because there are more number of youths who
succumb to suicide this making our country in highest in the suicide rate among the youth. As
young Indians become more progressive with the help of technology, their traditional
households becomes less supportive of their choices which results in a friction between the
people, causing distress.

Fig 6. Comparison of age group of suicide with India and the world

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Suicide rate trends in males and females (worldwide)

If we further bifurcate the recorded suicide number into the gender, we observe that the
numbers for male is much greater that females for most countries. The reason behind this can
be a general behaviour which is observed that women are more vocal and share their feelings
and views as compared to men. This helps women to vent out more rather than suffering
alone. This is the reason why the battle to curb suicides has been more successful for women
than for men.
However, this trend also is different when it comes to India. Usually, for most countries
women become less vulnerable to suicides after marriage, which is different from that of
India, where females were subjected to issues like dowry and domestic violence. However
with proper law and order in place, we have seen a decline in those numbers.

Fig7. Worldwide suicide trends in males and females

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Top Indian states in reported suicide cases

India is a land of diverse culture. Here the dialect changes every 20 kilometres and so the
culture. Therefore it becomes important to analyze the state wise suicide numbers.

In India, suicide is seen prevalent in southern states of India. The top 7 states contribute to the
70% of the total suicide cases the country out of which 4 states belongs to Southern India.
The high number of suicides in Maharashtra can be attributed to the increasing farmer
suicides in India who majorly belong to the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. For the
southern states in India, they are more developed than the other states, but the suicide rates
are also considerably high. This follows more like the global trend where the developed cities
are more prone to the threat of suicide.

The causes of suicide can be further analyzed for these top states to identify the leading
reason and how can it be rectified.

Fig8. Percentage of suicide rates in Indian states and UT

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Causes of suicide in India

If the causes of suicides are to be looked at in general, some authors link it to the economic
conditions of the country like the GDP, HDI, and population. It is important to acknowledge
the fact that indices like GDP and HDI cannot be improved overnight. It requires time and the
right policies to work out and till then we cannot let suicide happen.

Also, if we look at the causes of suicides in India (Fig9.), we see that the leading cause is due
to family issue. This directly indicates that people are not able to cope with the adversities in
any relationship and think suicide as the last resort. The adversities can be divorce,
separation, interpersonal conflicts, trust issues, adultery/cheating etc.

Fig9. Causes of suicide in India

If the causes are known, the further action items can be worked out. But what is important to
note here is that for a considerable amount of cases, the reasons are not known for a suicide.
In India the procedure is that any unnatural deaths are reported to the police. The police
investigate in the matter and files and First Information Report (FIR). This report contains the
cause of the death with valid evidences and autopsy report. This is then submitted to the
NCRB and therefore the data reported by NCRB is dependent on what community reports.
So, if the causes of suicide are unknown, it indicates that people are not able to communicate

xxii
what they are going through. There issues can be resolved if they consider taking a
counselling or a psychotherapy. However, since there is a stigma associated with issues
surrounding mental illness which pulls them back from taking a help. To add further to this,
even if any person wants to seek any help from expert in this field, the cost for a consultation
is a handsome amount, which is not possible for every person to afford.

According to a report published by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on October
10, 2018, the ideal ratio of psychiatrist to the population should be 1:8000 and currently the
number for India stands at 1:200,000. The country needs 13,000 psychiatrists to achieve the
desired ratio and currently the number of psychiatrist is around 4000 in the country. These
numbers are distributed in the metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and are less
accessible in the tier 2 tier 3 cities. This can be another reason for the high prices.

Means adopted to commit suicide

The methods adopted to commit differs from male to females. The percentage of males
committing suicide by hanging is more where as the percentage of females committing
suicide by self immolation is more. According to a study, women are four times more likely
to attempt and suicide but not complete it where as men are two times more likely to
complete the suicide.

Fig10. Means adopted by males and females to commit suicide

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Results

After the analysis of the datasets and secondary research, following were the outcomes of the
study.

(i) The Suicide rate trend shows a sharp increase during the period of 1985 to 1995.
The graph looks more or less flat in the period 1995 to 2005 as compared to the
previous decade. Thereafter we observe a decline in the suicide rate trend.
(ii) Although, the suicide rate shows a declining trend during 2005 – 2015 periods,
countries like US, Russian Federation and Japan were amongst the highest suicide
rate. These countries were from different continents with different cultures and
ethnicity but dealt with the same public health issue of suicides.
(iii) Further analysis for the three countries i.e. US, Russian Federation and Japan,
with factors such as population of the country in that period and generation was
done. It was inferred that for Japan and Russian Federation, the population from
2005 to 2015 has remained almost constant and the suicide numbers have shown a
slight declining trend whereas for US with the increase in population, the suicide
trends have also increased.
(iv) The boomers and Generation X were the generation who committed the most
number of suicides during the period of 2005 – 2015. This was due to the conflict
in the value system i.e. the Generation X preferred individualism where as the
period post 2000 was more of collaborative work.
(v) On analysing the trends of suicide in the economically prosperous G7 countries of
the world, it was observed that there was disparity within the seven countries as
well. Where US and Japan had higher rate as compared to UK, Canada and Italy.
This result also hinted that the economic conditions of the country are not the only
or major condition to dominate the suicide trend in the countries.
(vi) On comparing the world statistic with India on the factor of age group, the
outcomes were that for the world, the age group of 34 – 54 is the most vulnerable
to suicides where as for India the age group was 15 – 44.
(vii) The outcomes of the gender analysis for the world and India were that males
commit the more number of suicides than females however; the suicide rate in
married women in India is greater than married women outside India.

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 (viii) On analyzing the data specific to India from Dataset2, it was inferred that top 7
states contribute to the 70% of the total suicide cases the country out of which 4
states belongs to Southern India. Maharashtra is the state in India where the
suicide rate is the highest followed by West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
(ix) When the data on the causes of suicide was analyzed for India, the results showed
that the leading cause of suicide for both the gender was family problems. Also
for considerable number of people the causes of suicide remained unknown.
(x) The methods adopted to commit differs from male to females. The percentage of
males committing suicide by hanging is more where as the percentage of females
committing suicide by self immolation is more.

Conclusion

Suicide rates vary with country. It cannot be attributed to only economic factors. It is a blend
of social cultural and biological factors. The findings suggest that people are unable to deal
with tension in the family and hesitate to communicate their issues or seeking professional
help. It is a concern for India more, because it is the country where youngsters commit the
highest number suicides in the world. The most efficient way to prevent it taking professional
from a psychiatrist or a psychologist but people hesitate to approach then because of several
reasons including the cost associated with it. Our country needs more efficient and effective
insurance policies where people do not hesitate because it is an expensive process. Also more
awareness should be created about mental health and well being. People should become more
sensitive towards any issues of such kind and empathise with people who are suffering from
any such issues rather than mocking or making fun of them. This becomes more important
when the highest number of causes of suicide is due to family problems. Where near and dear
ones should be a support system for each other, on the contrary becomes the reason for
someone‟s suicide. Preventive measures to curb suicide can also include the use of
technology. Devices like smart watches and smart phones can be used to track a patient and
can send alerts during crisis situations.

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References

1. https://ourworldindata.org/suicide
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3146189/
3. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/34/4/846/692901
4. Mohsen Naghavi, on behalf of the Global Burden of Disease Self-Harm
Collaborators. Paper accepted26 December 2018
https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l94
5. Digital Suicide Prevention: Can Technology Become a Game-changer by Arshya
Vahabzadeh, Ned Sahin and Amir Kalali Published online 2016 Jun 1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5077254/
6. Neeleman, J., Halpern, D., Leon, D., & Lewis, G. (1997). Tolerance of suicide,
religion and suicide rates: an ecological and individual study in 19 Western countries.
Psychological medicine.
7. Mendez, Juliet & Feliscuzo, Larmie & Semblante, Julian & Amparado, Mauro Allan.
(2020). Analysis of Mental Health Program based on Suicide Rate Trends: 1985 to
2015. 10.13140/RG.2.2.19927.42408.
8. World Health Organization. (2014). Preventing suicide: A global imperative. World
Health Organization.
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