Coordinators Highlight

In our bid at preventing suicide as is this year’s mental health day theme, there’s the need to take practical measures at this. One of the effective means is to push for the decriminalization of  suicidal behavior. Beneath is a poem that seeks to address the reason for this.

Poem in full

Who cares about incarceration
When death seems the only solution?
Who bothers about contempt
When planning a suicide attempt?
If it is clearly an ailment,
Then why the threat of punishment?
If being unwell is criminal,
Isn’t the ignorance here phenomenal?
 
Why will you give detention?
When the need is attention?
Wouldn’t they be sure to complete,
In hope of finding peace at six feet,
If they are surely going to jail,
Should their efforts at dying fail?
How many deaths has the law prevented
Ever since it was implemented?
What then is illegal
About being suicidal?

Richard Dei-Asamoa
Psychiatry Resident
Department Of Psychiatry,
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital