World Mental Health Day: UN Statement

Today, World Mental Health Day, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued an open statement:

Removing obstacles to liveable lives: A rights-based approach to suicide prevention

The statement is sharply critical of current mainstream approaches to suicide prevention:

Within the health sector, addressing suicide in the individual must shift and begin with the complexity of that human person and not the homogeneity of a diagnosis. We must seek solutions that both prevent the accumulation of trauma and desperation that leads to suicide and respond to those in crisis in a way that addresses the underlying issues that have so deeply affected them. Responses within the health system far too often focus on the immediate crisis and not the complex and long-term build-up of such despair or the long-term recovery that is often required. This is a systemic failure of the imagination that has wasted human and financial resources in the futile pursuit of a panacea, inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering, and costed countless lives. Interventions that are non-coercive, shrewd in the prescription of medication, focused on building coping skills, and which emphasize the unique experience of the individual show much more promise and must be prioritized.

It recommends a different approach based on human rights:

On World Mental Health Day, I recommend that States adopt strategies for preventing suicide through a rights-based approach that avoids excessive medicalization and instead follows modern public health principles which focus on addressing societal determinants, promoting autonomy and resilience through social connection, tolerance, justice, and healthy relationships. The collective failures of our past must catalyze us to do better moving forward.

This new approach, if it ever becomes a reality, would have a lot in common with what we do at 7 Cups.

Charlie