In 2013, 668 lives were lost in road accidents, while 1,322 Mumbaikars committed suicide, as per National Crime Records Bureau data. In the second fortnight of August this year, four persons took their lives by jumping off the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, raising fears of the copycat syndrome being at play.
"Mumbai's round-the-year campaign against drunk driving has shown commendable results, but we don't have any such programme for suicides or depression," said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty.
A few years ago, in a solitary effort, the civic administration roped in actor Aamir Khan to deliver anti-suicide messages. But there was no sustained campaign to detect and treat depression, which is the leading cause of suicides across the world.
On the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day on Wednesday, experts felt it is high time the city got a mental health programme to check the high suicide rate. The city has, for the last few years, been witnessing three or four suicides every day. "And these are the reported suicides. The stigma against them is so high that many possibly go unreported," said Dr Hozefa Bhinderwala, who consults at Saifee Hospital in Charni Road.
Mental health issues suffer due to a number of reasons. "A fractured mind is invisible and hence societal response is poor. In contrast, death due to accident is viewed with compassion and empathy. There is also the belief that a person who takes his own life is partially responsible for it," said Dr Shetty.
But the main problem is the stigma attached to mental health problems. "Families fear stigmatization. People would rather keep quiet about cases of depression in their family than seek help. By the time people reach out it is often quite late," said Dr Shubhangi Parkar, a well-known psychiatrist and dean of KEM Hospital in Parel.
The growing sense of alienation within society plays a role in preventing youngsters from seeking help. "We have to devise new emotional skills or technology to help people reconnect with each other. They have to learn to kill their shame and reach out," said Dr Shetty.
"Unless we accept depression and treat it as any other disease, we will continue to harvest more and more suicides," added Dr Bhinderwala.
Simple interventions can do the trick. A heart patient depressed at the prospect of undergoing an operation was recently advised by his doctor to reach out to friends. "He sent a message on a social networking site to 25 of his friends. Eleven responded with advise or offer to help with daily chores or to stay with him in hospital," said his doctor, adding that the patient is calmer now.
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