The number of suicides among young people has been increasing each year, while resources cannot meet the need for counselors, a report issued last week by the Control Yuan found.
Last year, 10,659 young people aged 15 to 24 committed suicide, accounting for 26.4 percent of all suicides, with depression or mental illness reported as the cause in most of the cases, the report said.
The Control Yuan said that its investigation showed a considerable lack of resources for counselors to help people considering suicide, urging authorities to remedy the situation as soon as possible.
Photo: Xie Jun-Lin, Taipei Times
The number of suicides among young people has risen each year, with 4,365 suicides in 2016, 4,905 in 2017, 6,352 in 2018, 7,991 in 2019 and 10,659 last year, Control Yuan members Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容), Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) and Su Li-chung (蘇麗瓊) said in the report.
“Although we cannot pinpoint a single cause, depression and emotional issues are frequent factors,” the report said. “An insufficient number of counselors, family objections to intervention, and poor integration between school counseling and public health services exacerbate the situation.”
The Suicide Prevention Act (自殺防治法) was passed by the Legislative Yuan on May 31, 2019, to provide a clear basis for the nation’s suicide prevention strategies, but the effectiveness of the act has been hampered by a lack of resources, the report said.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Private schools especially lack counseling resources, it said, adding that in 70 percent of the suicide cases involving students from private schools, the students had not had access to a counselor.
The authorities should follow up on young people who are unemployed and not enrolled in study programs to provide guidance where needed, it said.
“We also found that among cases involving students, only 6 percent of the students had accessed counseling resources outside of school, and less than 2 percent performed self-harm prior to committing suicide,” the Control Yuan members said.
FAMILY COMMUNICATION
The report found that a decline in communication among family members and a general lack of public knowledge about emotional issues contributed to the increase in suicides among young people.
Parents and caretakers were generally unable to identify emotional issues when they emerged, it said, recommending seminars to help parents identify when problems might be present.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,