Special Report: Suicides among Cagayan de Oro youth

By John Peps Dales
MSU-Marawi Intern

MENTAL health-related illnesses leading up to suicide attempts and completions have been seemingly inevitable adversity worldwide. In 2022, the World Health Organization estimated that 703,000 people take their own lives every year.

Unfortunately, the Philippines is no exception to this harrowing social dilemma. Taking into account the status of the country on major prevalent issues like poverty and the Covid-19 pandemic, the foreseeable spike in the national suicide rate is turning into reality.

Worldwide Trend

“This is a worldwide trend. And in general, if you look at it, consistently, research would tell you all around the world, suicide rates are skyrocketing. And this is due to a lot of factors. One primarily being the pandemic,” Jayme Leonen- Pagaspas pointed out, the head psychologist of the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD)- Psychosocial Division of Cagayan de Oro City.

The peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 has taken a huge toll on the mental health of everybody, according to Pagaspas. To such a degree that there have been numerous published studies centered on the spike in diagnosed cases of depression and anxiety. Anxiety is the leading one followed by depression, Pagaspas shared that these mental health diagnoses are particularly painful and harmful to the youth.

“The effect of the pandemic on the mental health of the youth would last at least for the next 10 years,” Pagaspas noted, citing an article from a pediatric society abroad.

Pagaspas also noted that Cagayan de Oro City is currently ‘mirroring’ all of these international studies and that the suicide cases in the city started to spike in 2019.

Increasing or decreasing?

In the past few months of this year, there have been recorded cases of both suicide attempts and completions in Cagayan de Oro City. These cases were notably high in April and May, the same time when a bridge had become infamous in the city. The Maharlika Bridge located along Barangay Consolacion which crosses the Cagayan River was a hotspot for suicide cases during this period.

Whether increasing or decreasing, Pagaspas said that the accurate number of cases cannot be empirically proven due to the strain on monitoring it which is a shared struggle globally.

As the city psychologist, Pagaspas also assessed, however, that there has been a decline in recorded suicide completions involving the youth but there are still ongoing cases.

Statistical data and age demographics

Based on the data of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department- Oro Rescue (CDRRMD) for both attempts and completions, there were 71 cases in 2021, 88 cases in 2022, and 47 cases in 2023 as of May 5. Out of the 47 cases of this year, 14 were ongoing attempts and 11 were completed suicides.

Pagaspas emphasized that these data are very alarming considering that in the first quarter of 2023, the city has already reached half of the cases last year. This indicates that the foreseen end-of-the-year statistic of suicide cases in Cagayan de Oro City will triple.

Of all the tallied cases of CSWD, 40-50% belong to the youth demographic. The Cagayan de Oro City Police Office’s (Cocpo) data shows that attempted and completed cases in 2019, when the surge of suicide cases was initially reported, 67% were associated with youth demographics while 58.33% in 2020 and 61.33% in 2021.

Triggering factors

Depression. The most common factor that can trigger or influence a person to commit suicide is depression. Pagaspas explained that suicide is usually the worst symptom of depression which is a long-standing illness.

“Although there are other reasons why people commit suicide, usually it is a mental health condition. It’s not something that people do at the spur of the moment. It’s an indication, it [suicide] is the worst symptom,” she stated.

Pandemic. During the Covid-19 pandemic, people were confined to the spaces of their homes because of the imposed quarantine as a safety protocol. Students, on the other hand, resumed classes through online set-up. This, according to Pagaspas, greatly affected the developmental milestones of the children.

“They had been deprived of socialization, they had been the recipients of the compounding stress of their parents out of losing financial means of earning, and they experienced stress owing to the changes of work environment,” Pagaspas elaborated.

“Parents should be the ones guiding their children and protecting them from stress. However, even the parents themselves had also lost their core during the pandemic,” she added.

Adolescence. Adolescence is one of the stages of human development between childhood and adulthood. Adolescents undergo rapid psychosocial growth and it is a big player in triggering suicidal behaviors according to Pagaspas.

“When it [adolescence] kicks in, it’s supposed to mess with the way you manage your emotions. So if you look at the developmental research, you would understand na kapag a person hits puberty, they undergo a lot of biological changes, hormonal changes,” Pagaspas explained

This suggests that if a person undergoes a series of strong emotions but the mind is not yet equipped to handle these kinds of emotions without the presence of effective emotional support along the way, it will be a dangerous combination that predisposes a child, a member of the youth, to depression.

Seasonal suicidal behaviors. Suicidal behaviors have seasons. Thus, Pagaspas reiterated, that graduation season can also be a trigger factor for a person to commit suicide.

“They usually start to peak during pre-graduation, graduation season kasi malaking trigger yung academic failure and stress. Ngayon nagshift na yung academic calendar natin. Kaya if you notice nagsimula siya ng rise late April to May, yung mga critical periods ng schools.” Pagaspas said.

Media coverage of suicide

Endorsed by the then city mayor, Pagaspas had written an appeal before as a stand against publishing sensational news about the suicide cases in Cagayan de Oro City.

She firmly believed that publishing sensational news about suicide is harmful, especially to those who are manifesting depressive symptoms for it causes a trigger in them to act on their longstanding intention— committing suicide.

“We also had a conversation actually with our Oro media about it to serve as a reminder to them. Kasi kumbaga, by publishing the behavior, you are legitimizing it. So you’re allowing people to do it, teaching people to do it,” she also mentioned.

Howbeit, Pagaspas admitted that suicide is catchy news and some media organizations and stations might not abide by what she pleads.

Suicide preventive measures

Hotline services. Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando Uy has invested in the expansion of the city’s hotline services. Pagaspas said that the target direction is to make the hotline services available 24/7.

It should be effective this month of July, however, they have to cater first to the sudden exponential growth of calls to make sure that there will be no backlogs before they transition to 24/7 operation.

Despite this, they still operate 24/7 most of the time. Recently, Pagaspas shared, that they have intercepted at least 15 suicide attempts through calls in a single month.

Whole community approach. Under the direction of the city mayor, communities are currently being mobilized for suicide prevention. Pagaspas said that through their psychoeducation campaigns, they are trying to establish protocols and transition into a whole-community approach as a suicide response.

During April and May, they conducted pieces of training among their community partners on what to do and on how to distinguish a person on the verge of committing suicide.

“Kasi yung yung pinaka-importante eh, catching the act before it’s done and then knowing what to do when it’s caught,” Pagaspas noted.

Tanod and personnel pieces of training. The city also held pieces of training for barangay tanods. In their module of training, they were exposed to handling mental health responses. They also had refresher pieces of training for CDRRMD personnel to have more efficient referral channels. Mental health-related emergency calls can be referred from CDRRMD to the psychosocial division to proactively provide interventions to people.

“Especially if depression or suicide-related yung call, sasama yung team namin para on the spot itself mabibigyan mo ng Pychological First Aid (PFA). Although kaya din kami nag PFA training sa CDRRMD para kahit hindi pa kami 24/7 kung magrerespond sila alam nila kung ano sasabihin, kung paano ihahandle yung tumatawag na clients. Para hindi na kailangan na i-refer pa sa amin,” Pagaspas explained.

Reaching Deped schools. Considering that the youth demographic takes up a huge percentage of the reported cases of suicide in the city, CSWD- psychosocial division is also strengthening programs with its school partners.

“We have an upcoming training, in partnership with the local school board, with all the DepEd schools of Cagayan de Oro City about early detection and emergency intervention to clients who may be experiencing mental health conditions, specifically sa depression,” said Pagaspas.

How do you talk to them?

Pagaspas explained that communicating with a person with suicidal tendencies about what they are going through requires compassion and understanding, not judgment.

Being mindful of the actual behaviors you can do and specific questions you can ask when talking to them is also paramount.

“Kumustahin ninyo, ask how was your day. Anong ginawa mo? Ask reflective questions regularly to remind people of their blessings and gratitude. What was something that we were particularly grateful for today? Were there any challenges that you face today? Is there a way that I can help you today?,” Pagaspas pointed.

Questions like these, Pagaspas revealed, strengthen genuine connection within families because those who have mental health conditions need to feel a sense of connectedness.

“Ang dynamic kasi ng person with depression is there’s that feeling of helplessness that is fueled by consistent frustrations in the quality of their connection. So halimbawa, they want to connect with someone, tinitrivialize, dinidismiss, or pinagtatawanan and jinujudge. Kaya over time natatakot sila to disclose the behavior,” said Pagaspas.

These people need constant reassurance of your presence and that you are willing to listen.

“Kasi it’s that feeling of irrelevance, loneliness, disconnectedness that push them to do these actions,” Pagaspas added.

Pagaspas also shared that in therapy sessions, it is important to include the family as well, promoting a family system approach.

“Even if you change the person’s perception, if you don’t end mindset, if you don’t transform the situation, there’s a very high likelihood that when this person is under stress again, they will revert to that mindset unless you teach the family how to also care and facilitate and prevent that kind of situation,” she said.

_____

Cagayan de Oro residents in need of professional help can dial 911 or talk to a professional at 0970-039-2709. The Department of Health also has national crisis hotlines to assist people with mental health concerns: 1553 (landline), 0966-351-4518, and 0917-899-USAP (8727) (Globe/TM); and 0908-639-2672 (Smart/Sun/TNT).