Schools in the Rio de Janeiro education network must carry out an annual campaign to prevent and combat self-mutilation. The determination is in Law 9.699/22, sanctioned by Governor Cláudio Castro and published in today’s Official Gazette (30).
The State Campaign to Prevent and Combat Self-Mutilation should promote educational, informative and awareness-raising lectures throughout the school year, as well as publicize measures that can be adopted to prevent and combat self-mutilation in children and young people. The law also provides for the distribution of informative booklets on the subject.
According to the Ministry of Health, about 20% of young Brazilians self-mutilate, representing 14 million people. The Secretary of State for Education is authorized to sign agreements to enforce the law. The Executive Power shall regulate the necessary complementary rules.
Congresswoman Martha Rocha (PDT), author of the law and president of the Health Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj), informed that, in a public hearing held by the commission, the deputies found that the second biggest cause for demand for the network public health care for adolescents is related to mental health, which has been affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
“This law portrays an observation that we had within the education network, which is the psychological suffering of these adolescents. Self-harm is a harsh reality in their lives.”
Medical emergency
speaking to Brazil Agency, the president of the Brazilian Psychiatry Association (ABP), Antonio Geraldo da Silva, assessed that this issue “is a medical emergency”. According to him, the Federal Law 13,819which deals with the prevention of self-mutilation and suicide, already advocates this.
“It is only necessary that [essas campanhas] be carried out by trained technicians”.
Currently, he said, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29 in the world, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“This statistic is very alarming and should be a matter of concern for all government officials.”
For the president of the ABP, laws such as the one sanctioned by the Rio de Janeiro governor can be considered great advances in the area of suicide prevention in Brazil, “because by creating prevention strategies such as those imposed by the new law, we managed to strengthen the fight in defense of health. quality public mentality for all”.
Epidemic
The professor of psychiatrist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC RJJ), Jorge Jaber Filho, stressed that the initiative, in addition to being important, is timely, because this problem is increasingly common among children and adolescents, especially among females. .
“Practically an epidemic, which can evolve into suicide attempts, some serious. Annual campaigns promoted by the Health and Education departments can help to reverse this situation, focusing both on prevention and on possible treatments. They should include the parents, as the signs often appear at home; and the sooner they are detected, the better,” he said.
According to the professor at PUC-RJ, self-mutilation is very common in people with personality disorder. borderline, whose diagnosis is only given to people over 18 years of age; and in people with disorders such as anxiety, depression, and so-called defiant disorder.
The treatment uses medication, but it is essentially psychotherapeutic, with psychologists and other professionals, who will work on the emotional side. “The drugs stabilize the patient and allow other therapies to play their part, attacking the problem at its true source,” he added.
