According to studies of Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, OVV, In our country, suicides in the child population have been on the rise in recent years and in the first half of 2020 alone, 19 deaths of children and adolescents were recorded for this reason.
Added to this premise are the inventories of the organization that defends children’s rights, Cecodap, with its recent investigation entitled “Child suicide: a forgotten problem in the media and public policies in Venezuela”, which addresses the issue of mental health in childhood and adolescence.
Carlos Trapani, coordinator of the Cecodappointed out that said report presented in the middle of 2021 what he seeks is to dignify the mental health as a fundamental human right and above all to be able to make visible the impact of the complex humanitarian emergency that the country is going through, aggravated by the situation caused by the pandemic, on the mental health of children and adolescents.
In the study carried out by the public transport it was determined that only between January and June 2020, 19 children and adolescents died by suicide. The report also points out that the Venezuelan crisis has become distressing for many and has led to an increase in suicidal acts commonly associated with conditions in which depression and anxiety are reported.
“Suicide in Venezuelain addition to being a public health problem, it can also be considered a social phenomenon (…) the precariousness of living conditions has not only increased direct and structural violence, but also the violence of individuals towards themselves” , also points out the OVV report.
It should be noted that the public policies used in the country by the official sector have not prioritized the issue of mental health. “The Venezuelan Constitution adheres to the definition of the World Health Organization to describe the right to mental healthl. Article 41 establishes that the right to health and health services implies that all children and adolescents enjoy the highest possible level of physical and mental health”, the organization that defends children’s rights, Cecodap, also indicates in its report.
