PAES holds Yellow September

"Delicacies of Actions and Studies on Suicide". With this theme, the Program of Actions and Studies on Suicide (PAES) of the Psychology course at Bahiana held another Yellow September, an annual event that highlights suicide prevention month. The activity took place this Wednesday (27/09), at Campus Cabula, with the presence of the coordinator of the Psychology course at Bahiana Sylvia Barreto, People Development coordinator Luísa Ribeiro, as well as students and teachers. The event began with an inspiring presentation by choir sings Bahiana, followed by a speech by the manager of the Psychopedagogical Care Center at Bahiana, Angélica Mendes who presented the Letter “Propositions of the exchange collectives Brazil, supportive therapists and group of professionals/students on suicide in and from universities, primary and secondary schools”, signed by Bahiana and by another 114 institutions including universities, high schools, university psychology services, laboratories and research institutes and civil society mobilizations. The document proposes 8 strategic actions defined in the National Forum for Suicide Prevention and Postvention in Universities, Secondary and Elementary Schools (FNPPSU), held in May 2022.

The event also marked a paradigm shift proposed by PAES so that it stops being Yellow September and becomes Colorful September. “As we saw in the document that was read, there is a question today about the suitability of Yellow September as a campaign, to the extent that it seems that people only remember talking about suicide in September. We have also been thinking: “why only yellow?” When we talk about preserving life, more than suicide, that is, talking about suicide as preserving life, we think that life is colorful and that we need to include white, yellow, black, races, ethnicities, differences religious beliefs, diversity”, explained the coordinator of PAES and professor of the Psychology course at Bahiana, Aicil Franco.

The program began with the round table "Social determinants of health and suicide: from the questions and care necessary to the pathologization of psychological suffering", with the participation of psychologists Manuela Rocha and João Coutinho. The theme of suicide and psychological suffering was approached from different perspectives, through 9 learning workshops, facilitated by former students of the Bahiana. “Brazil is today the 'champion' in deaths by suicide in Latin America, so it is an issue that really needs to be publicized, talked about, discussed and prevented. We have to speak up to be able to prevent it! Suicide is not an illness, it is about suffering and living is crossed by suffering. Who has never suffered?”, declared Érica Ferreira Calado Machado, an 8th semester student who is developing her Course Completion Work on postvention (care for people linked to those who committed suicide).