Moldovan parliament approves report of special commission for working out amendments in preventing suicide

Chisinau, 5 July /MOLDPRES/ - The MPs at a today’s meeting heard and adopted a report of the special commission for the working out of a package of legislative amendments in the field of preventing the suicide. The document was backed by the majority of the lawmakers present at the meeting.    

The head of the aforementioned special commission, Vladimir Odnostalco, read the report before the plenum.

According to Odnostalco, the participants in the commission’s meetings assessed the general situation concerning the suicide and attempts of suicide, identified the factors which determine the suicidal behavior of children, young people and adults. They also evaluated the services of residents’ emotional support and their efficiency. In the end, they found legislative solutions which would improve the present legal framework and would lead to the prevention of suicide.   

Vladimir Odnostalco noted that, in 2015 alone, 697 persons, of whom 103 minors, committed attempts of suicide. As many as 343 cases of them ended with the death of people. In 2016, their number grew to 815 cases.    

Following the evaluation of the situation, the commission members identified a string of legislative acts which would need to be completed and amended in order to prevent this phenomenon. Among the commission’s recommendations, there is the promotion of the policy on the mental health of children and teenagers, through the integration of mental health services in the primary medicine, consolidation and development of the network of health services friendly to young people, with the application of programmes on the promotion of a sound lifestyle, life skills.      

Also, the commission members recommend to carry out a national study of the attempts and cases of suicide, establishment of the free of charge phone service for people in situations of suicidal crises and risk, implementation of a single set of collection and processing of data about this phenomenon and introduction of a programme of parental training for attendance by the future families when submitting the acts for the registration of marriage.

(Reporter A. Zara, editor A. Raileanu)