Conference paper
SUICIDAL PHENOMENON IN PANDEMIC TIMES .THE TRENTINO'S REALITY
Wilma Angela Renata di Napoli
; Mental Health Center of Trento, Trento, Italy
Abstract
Suicide is a major public health problem; according to the latest WHO data, it is among the top twenty causes of death in the
world. After the sudden and unexpected spreading of a global pandemic in 2020, many mental health researchers have launched
alarms about a possible suicide rates' rise, due to the inevitable consequences of the ongoing social and health emergency. However,
recent articles in scientific literature have disconfirmed this thesis. Trentino also seems not to deviate from this dynamic: preliminary
data, collected in an unconventional, and not yet official way, have been able to show that in 2020 the suicide rate remained stable.
The finding that excludes up to date such a rise in rates does not unfortunately provide any guarantee that the situation will remain
constant over time, and that there cannot be significant differences regarding gender, ethnicity, religious faith, sexual orientation or
social class in determining a different impact of the current crisis on the suicidal phenomenon. Further studies and insights into the
processing of the data in our possession are needed. Difficulties and uncertainties connected to the covid-19, with which it is now
clear that the community will have to "learn to live together", could also in the medium and long term constitute a prolonged stressgenerating
element with a greater negative impact on the mental health of the population. It is essential, in light of the particular
social and health situation we are experiencing, to carry out with even greater effectiveness, precision and continuity actions such as
those promoted within the Invito alla Vita Project for the prevention of suicide, in order to guarantee the most effective prevention of
this serious phenomenon. The psychological and social implications of the covid-19 pandemic will only be fully assessable in a few
years, when the crisis will be effectively over. Only then we will be able to understand if the efforts put in place at a global level, and
in particular in the province of Trento, have been effective in the managing of the suicidal phenomenon.
Keywords
suicide; prevention; mental health
Hrčak ID:
274194
URI
Publication date:
16.9.2021.
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