KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 — Mental health and suicidal cases discharged from Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals from January to July this year were 35.42 per cent lower than 2019, Dr Adham Baba said.
The cases the health minister was referring to were data collected by the Health Informatics Centre, MOH, referring specifically to the number of cases of mental disorder and suicidal behaviour discharged from MOH hospitals.
“During the period of January to July 2020, a total of 9,502 cases were reported, compared to 14,673 cases in the same period in 2019,” Dr Adham said in his written Dewan Rakyat reply on December 3 to Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh.
Meanwhile, he said 465 attempted suicide cases were reported in MOH hospitals from January to July.
“However, this data refers to cases that receive treatment in MOH health facilities only and not due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic alone,” the health minister said.
Although the number of mental health cases admitted in MOH hospitals is lower this year than last year, MOH previously reported that three government psychosocial hotlines received 11,791 calls for assistance from March to August which was during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bukit Aman management director Ramli Din was previously quoted saying that about one suicide was reported nationwide daily during movement restrictions from March 18 to October 30.
Yeoh asked the minister to state the ministry’s latest status in creating a special database of suicide cases (National Sucide Registry Malaysia) to ensure detailed data is recorded, the allocation required for the registry, and the latest trend in mental health cases recorded in Malaysia since March 2020.
Dr Adham said that the proposal on the development of the National Registry System for suicidal cases or fatal injury cases was presented on May 21 this year to the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department.
“This project has been listed in the Rolling Plan 1, Year 2021 project, 12th Malaysian Plan with an allocation of RM4.2 million.”
Attorney-General’s Chambers Considering Suicide Decriminalisation
In a separate Dewan Rakyat written reply on December 2, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said that the Attorney General’s Chambers is considering to decriminalise suicide in Malaysia.
“The Attorney General’s Chambers is also considering proposals from stakeholders to remove attempted suicide from the criminal justice system and include people who attempt suicide into the health care system for appropriate treatment,” Muhyiddin said.
“The study also looked at comparisons of legal provisions on suicide attempts in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, India and Singapore.
“The study covers two sections, where the first part of the study focuses on suicide attempts under Section 309 of the Penal Code, while the second part of the study focuses on suicide abetment offences under sections 305 and 306 of the Penal Code,” the prime minister said.
Muhyiddin was replying to Merbok MP Nor Azrina Surip, who asked the prime minister to state the extent of the government’s efforts in decriminalising suicde by amending or abolishing Section 309 of the Penal Code, which punishes those who attempt sucide either by imprisonment, a fine, or both if convicted.
According to Muhyiddin, statistics up to 2015 have shown an increasing trend of the incidence of sucidie involving various ages, in which suicde attempts occur due to a variety of factors.
“Therefore, a more holistic approach needs to be taken to curb such acts,” Muhyiddin said.
Singapore from January 1 this year has taken the decision to decriminalise attempted suicide, which was similarly done in the United Kingdom and India in 1961 and 2017 respectively.
