According to a recent Executive Power decree, these specialists will provide advice to the National Honorary Commission in charge of dealing with this alarming issue.
They were also entrusted with an epidemiological analysis that will contribute to the definition of preventive strategies, including specific risk factors associated with suicide and the proposal of a concrete line of action to address the problem in a comprehensive manner.
Last July, the head of Mental Health at the Ministry of Health, Horacio Porciúncula, stated that since 2014 this cause of mortality has begun to rise to a current plateau of 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Uruguay recorded a total of 718 suicides in 2020, the third highest rate behind Guyana and Suriname in Latin America, according to a World Health Organization report.
The director of Uruguay’s National Youth Institute (INJU), Felipe Paullier, said in August that they are working on a project to prevent suicide among teenagers, as it is the leading cause of death among Uruguayans between 15 and 24 years of age.
Porciúncula identified among the causes from 2020, the loss of labor sources due to the Covid-19 pandemic, psychological and physical damages, and losses of loved ones derived and some subsequent human behaviors.
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