Gibraltar must ACT quickly to respond to SUICIDE CRISIS

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 Monday, November 25, 2019 - 11:00 Mark Viales

by MARK VIALES
The Government has finally responded to the growing public health crisis surrounding suicides in Gibraltar over a year after a PANORAMA investigation shed light on the problem.

The three-part series published in October last year uncovered the deplorable state of mental health services in Gibraltar that may have been linked to an increase in suicides.

In the last few years Gibraltar has become one of the countries with the highest suicide rates in Europe but the government has repeatedly tried to play down the situation. PANORAMA’s investigation last year sent former Health Minister Neil Costa scrambling for a response to the strong allegations made towards the highest held responsibility under his portfolio.

BREAKDOWN

The response was to a tragic statement made by a local psychiatric nurse who had suffered suicidal thoughts as a result of being overworked while lacking resources.
“I had a nervous breakdown and ended up touching upon ideas of suicide,” the psychiatric nurse said last year.

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