The undersecretary of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) José Luis Satdjián announced that the portfolio will put into operation a mandatory registration system of suicide attempts to know these cases “immediately”, he said, and thus follow up and care for the person. who wanted to take his life.
The MSP also works so that the calls received for suicide attempts to the ASSE Life Line 0800-0767 are reported to their health provider and the corresponding follow-up is carried out.
This weekend marks World Suicide Prevention Day. In Uruguay, in 2021, there were 758 suicides and it is estimated that the figure will be higher at the end of 2022. In the first five months of the year, 349 people took their own lives, a figure that alarms the authorities.
Regarding the registration system, Satdjián reported that “the mandatory registration form is given at the emergency doors when a person enters due to an attempted self-elimination. Professionals must fill out a file that is paper, that file must travel to the Ministry of Public Health and it must be processed there and take action”, .
In that sense, he explained: “We have already developed the computer system, we are in the stage of generating the rule that obliges (health) providers to have this mandatory registration and after there is a mandatory complaint for the Ministry to make contact with a person who make an attempt immediately.”
“In the coming weeks we will be in the training of health teams and starting it up,” he assured.
