Availability of Mental Health Services and its Effects on the Suicide Rate of African and Asia-Pacific States

Kristine Cerenado¹

1. Department of Interdisciplinary Studies/Faculty, Far Eastern University, Manila, Philippines.

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.9 , Issue.7 , pp.34-39, Jul-2023

Online published on Jul 31, 2023

Copyright © Kristine Cerenado . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

View this paper at   Google Scholar | DPI Digital Library

XML View     PDF Download

How to Cite this Paper

85 Views    203 Downloads    19 Downloads

Abstract :
This study explores the effect of the availability of mental health services such as the number of psychiatrists, psychologists, inpatient facilities, and outpatient facilities on the suicide rate of countries belonging to the United Nations (UN) African and Asia-Pacific States. Specifically, it aims to determine (1) the demographic profile of the African and Asia-Pacific states, concerning mental health; (2) the overall significant relationship between the availability of mental health services to the suicide rate of the African and Asia-Pacific state; and (3) the effect of the additional number of psychiatrists, psychologists, inpatient facilities, and outpatient facilities on the suicide rate of the African and Asia-Pacific states. Thus, it follows a quantitative research design. Multiple Regression, through the application Microsoft Excel and JASP, is the statistical treatment used to analyze data. Whereas all data used in this study is from the Global Health Observatory (GHO) of the World Health Organization (WHO). Based on the results, it was concluded that (1) Zimbabwe and South Korea have the highest crude suicide rate per both sexes per 100 000 population for the African and Asia-Pacific states, respectively; (2) there is a significant relationship between the availability of mental health services to the suicide rate of the African and Asia-Pacific State; and (3) the number of psychiatrists, inpatient facilities, and outpatient facilities have a positive effect on the suicide rate of the two regional states while the number of psychologists has a negative effect on the suicide rate of the two regional states. To further open and enrich the discussion, it is recommended to maximize all the UN regional states as research subjects and to include other forms of mental health services.

Key-Words / Index Term :
mental health, suicide rates, services availability, Asia-pacific states, African states

References :
[1]. One in 100 deaths is by suicide. World Health Organizations Official Website. 2021.
[2]. Ng C. H. Mental health and integration in Asia Pacific. BJPsych international, Vol.15, Issue. 4, pp. 76–79. 2018.
[3]. John, A., Eyles, E., Webb, R. T., Okolie, C., Schmidt, L., Arensman, E., Hawton, K., O`Connor, R. C., Kapur, N., Moran, P., O`Neill, S., McGuiness, L. A., Olorisade, B. K., Dekel, D., Macleod-Hall, C., Cheng, H. Y., Higgins, J., & Gunnell, D. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm and suicidal behaviour: update of living systematic review. F1000Research, Vol. 9, pp. 1097, 2020.
[4]. Alibudbud, R. Suicide among the youth and school-based suicide prevention: Exemplar and reflections from the Philippines. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 83, 2023.
[5]. Stene-Larsen, K., & Reneflot, A. Contact with primary and mental health care prior to suicide: A systematic review of the literature from 2000 to 2017. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Vol. 47, Issue. 1, pp. 9–17, 2019.
[6]. The Global Health Observatory. Word Health Organizations Official Website. 2023.
[7]. Ansari, I. Mental health Pakistan: optimizing brains. International journal of emergency mental health and human resilience, Vol. 17, Issue. 1, pp. 288, 2015.
[8]. Hogan, M. & Grumet, J. Suicide prevention: An emerging priority for health care. Health Affairs, Vol. 35, Issue. 6, pp. 1084-1090, 2016.
[9]. Korosec Jagodic, H., Rokavec, T., Agius, M., & Pregelj, P. Availability of mental health service providers and suicide rates in Slovenia: a nationwide ecological study. Croatian medical journal, Vol. 54, Issue. 5, pp. 444–452, 2013.
[10]. Mathieu, S., de Leo, D., Wen Koo, Y., Leske, S., Goodfellow, B., Kolves, K. Suicide and suicide attempts in the Pacific Islands: A systematic literature review. The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, Vol. 17, 2021.
[11]. Hung, P., Busch, S., Shih, YW., McGregor, A., & Wang, S. Changes in community mental health services availability and suicide mortality in the US: a retrospective study. BMC Psychiatry, Vol. 20, pp. 188, 2020.
[12]. Atkinson, J.-A., Page, A., Heffernan, M., McDonnell, G., Prodan, A., Campos, B., Meadows, G., & Hickie, I. B. The impact of strengthening mental health services to prevent suicidal behaviour. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 53, Issue. 7, pp. 642–650, 2019.
[13]. Hester, R.D. Lack of access to mental health services contributing to the high suicide rates among veterans. Int J Ment Health Syst, Vol. 11, pp. 47, 2017.
[14]. Kapusta, N., Posch, M., Niederkrotenthaler, T., Fischer-Kern, M., Etzersdorfer, E., & Sonneck, G. Availability of mental health service providers and suicide rates in Austria: A nationwide study. Psychiatric Services, Vol. 61, Issue. 12, pp. 1198-1203, 2010.
[15]. Regional groups of Member States. United Nations Official Website, 2023.
[16]. JASP - A fresh way to do statistics. JASP Official Website, 2018.
[17]. Bachmann S. Epidemiology of Suicide and the Psychiatric Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 15, Issue. 7, pp. 1425, 2018.
[18]. Cameron, S. L. A., Tchernegovski, P & Maybery, D. Mental health service users’ experiences and perspectives of family involvement in their care: a systematic literature review, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 32, Issue. 3, pp. 699-715, 2023.
[19]. Henderson, C., Evans-Lacko, S., & Thornicroft, G. Mental illness stigma, help seeking, and public health programs. American journal of public health, Vol. 103, Issue. 5, pp. 777–780, 2013.
[20]. Corrigan, P. W., & Watson, A. C Factors that explain how policy makers distribute resources to mental health services. Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.), Vol. 54. Issue. 4, pp. 501–507, 2003.