Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 20, 2003
This emerged when Deputy Public Health Minister Pol Gen Pracha Promnok yesterday opened the Suicide Prevention Fair, held at a Sukhumvit hotel by the Public Health Ministry and the Samaritans Association of Thailand.
He said suicide was on the increase throughout the world. According to the World Health Organisation, suicide - related to depression, mental illness and drug addiction - accounted for one-third of the deaths of people aged 15-34 in 2001.
Reports by the Mental Health Department last year showed that more than one million Thai people suffered from mental illness, and 7.7 of every 100,000 people killed themselves, mostly youths and those at working ages. This amounted to about 14 people a day, Pol Gen Pracha said.
According to the reports, the major causes prompting suicide among Thais were depression, alcoholism and Aids.
Despite the rise in suicide worldwide, the Public Health Ministry had plans to prevent Thailand's figures increasing.
Pol Gen Pracha said mental health crisis centres were set up at 17 psychiatric hospitals nationwide to provide counselling services 24 hours a day on telephone number 1323. Advice could also be sought at the ministry's answering service on 1667.
He said Thailand had a shortage of psychiatrists, with only 400 specialists.
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