The SUPRE Project by World Health Organization (WHO)

The SUPRE Project is a project of the World Health Organization (WHO). It's main objective is to reduce mortality and morbidity due to suicidal behavior. This project is managed by the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Other activities of this project are: suicide mortality surveillance, technical support to countries, regional and national workshops, production and dissemination of resources, awareness-raising and advocacy, Multisite Intervention Study of Suicidal Behaviors (SUPRE MISS).

This is a very important cause, considering that, according to the WHO, the number of people who takes their own life every day is 3000 and for every single person that succeeds, at least 20 try to take their life without success. Also, if you take a look at the available statistics, it seems that males are more likely to try to commit suicide than females. For example, in the year 2000, in the age group of 25-34 the suicide rates of male was 30.1 and for females it was 6.3.

Another remarkable fact that you can find in the statistics available on the WHO website is that countries in which overall suicide rates are particularly high are: China, Cuba, Lithuania, Mauritius, Russia Federation and Sri Lanka. The SUPRE project focuses on these countries as well as those where the age distribution is skewed towards young people or women, or those in which the prevention of suicide is already a special concern.

By Patricia Rivero