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Yellow September: suicide in focus

21/09/2017

"People who have suicidal ideas have some mental health problem." "When a person thinks about committing suicide, he will be at risk of suicide for the rest of his life." Among myths and truths, what draws attention to people all over the world is that suicide is the 3rd cause of death among young people, and Brazil is currently 8th in this ranking. Promoting the exchange of knowledge, information about support networks and reflections on stigmas and prejudices related to suicide was the objective of the event Yellow September: suicide in focus, held on September 21, at the Academic Unit Brotas.

The action was an initiative of the Actions and Studies Program on Suicide (PAES) and included group dynamics and a videoconference with Karen Scavacini, psychologist, psychotherapist, specialist in Gestalt and coordinator of the Vita Alere Institute for the Prevention and Posvention of Suicide.

Students, former students, professors and students from other educational institutions participated in the meeting. “I assess this event as great. Initiatives like this are sorely missed. It's a subject still considered taboo and, therefore, not much is talked about and I think it needs to be talked about openly", comments the 2nd semester student of the Engineering course at UFBA, Bruno Mônaco, who went to the meeting at the invitation of a friend, Psychology student at Bahiana.

According to the Psychology student and PAES member, Fernando Lopes, “the goal is to talk more about suicide, which is a topic that is still little talked about in academia and society, and we know that the main form of prevention comes from this debate on the topic. The importance is also to encourage other people to study the subject”.

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"Suicide is an old theme, present throughout history, there are many studies that work on suicide, both from a biological, psychiatric, psychological and philosophical point of view", explains the coordinator of the Action and Studies Program on Suicide ( PAES), Prof. Aicil Fanco.

She says that, two years ago, she was approached by three students who wanted to study suicide. "For me, it was a little impactful because it was not an area in which I was dedicated, but I accepted their need to study this and the three TCCs were very well evaluated and had a suggestion from the board to invest in a study group on the subject" .

Today, the group has more than 20 students, in addition to one of three former students. The meetings always take place on Fridays, at the Academic Unit Brotas and are open to students, collaborators and those interested in the topic.

"It's a dream come true to see all of this here today, because, in my time as a student, people didn't talk about suicide, much less an event about the subject", celebrates Táina Sena, one of the former students of Bahiana who performed his CBT on suicide. She says that the choice of her study topic influences her work to this day. "I see many patients with suicidal ideation because of the coursework I developed on the Jungian approach to suicide."

According to Stefane Sampaio Nascimento, 8th semester of Psychology and member of PAES, what led her to participate in the program was the desire to know more about the subject, in order to be well prepared to help people who are experiencing suicidal ideas. "It's a little talked about subject, full of taboo and it's something that touches me a lot and I would like to know more to be able to help people in these conditions and, in psychology, we end up seeing this a lot, so it's good to be prepared to know how to deal with the matter in order to help people and reduce the harm that can be done.”