To mark World Suicide Prevention Day, which was commemorated on September 10th, the Mijas Town Hall wanted to raise awareness of this scourge on Friday 19th with a walk along the La Cala Coastal Path, with the support of Afesol Mental Health. "This is an issue that has been taboo in society for many years, which is why it is important to allocate more resources and promote initiatives such as this one to raise awareness of the problem", said the councillor for Sports and Social Inclusion, Mari Francis Alarcón (PP), adding that "it is also important to address this issue in schools and among young people, as it is a sensitive subject that, unfortunately, is all too common today".

Currently, suicide is the leading cause of unnatural death in Andalusia, said the president of Afesol Salud Mental, Cristian González. "According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, around 800 people have taken their own lives in Andalucía so far this year, which is why we have to talk about it and raise awareness, because it affects women, men and young people of all social backgrounds", he said.

 

Suicide prevention

Mijas is one of the pioneering municipalities in the field of suicide prevention, having had a programme in place for several years to intervene and monitor people who may be at risk, especially in the educational sphere, following an increase in self-harm and suicidal behaviour among young people. Ángel Blanc, a local police officer in Mijas, acts as a tutor in the municipality's educational centres. "Our role is simply to try to detect any mental health problems among students at an early stage so that they do not develop into a pathology", said the officer, insisting that "the first thing to do is to make the problem visible, in this case suicide, in order to try to find solutions".

Ángela Ruiz is a social educator at the Mental Health Unit in Mijas and Fuengirola,added that the team “only has four psychiatrists and three clinical psychologists, an insufficient team to care for all the patients in the area, so we need more resources in terms of healthcare". Ruiz also spoke about the families and friends of those affected, "who are also key to detecting a possible case of suicide... perhaps we should be more attentive to the people around us, as this would help detect any signs of despondency, lethargy or deep sadness".

Sport and mental health

Friday's walk also encouraged reflection on the importance of sport for our mental health. With the same objective in mind, the 'No more suicides' race will take place on November 2nd on Los Álamos beach (Torremolinos). Teresa González is organising this event "because I lost a family member to suicide and sport saved my life. I managed to heal and understand many things, so now I want to help those who are going through something similar and, most importantly, help to reduce the number of suicides".

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