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World Mental Health Day 2019 theme: "40 seconds of action", What does it mean

World Mental Health Day 2019 theme is "40 seconds of action" and the primary focus this year is suicide prevention.

By Vishal S
|
Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Oct 10: World Mental Health Day 2019 theme is "40 seconds of action" and the primary focus this year is suicide prevention. A disturbing fact is, Every 40 seconds, someone loses their life to suicide.

With this statistic, the meaning of this year's world mental health day theme becomes clear. What it essentially means is that "40 seconds of action" to spread awareness about suicide will go a long way reducing suicide/suicide attempts.

World Mental Health Day 2019 theme - 40 seconds of action - Suicide Prevention

Another bewildering and disturbing fact is that for each suicide, there are more than 20 suicide attempts. Suicides are preventable and a lot can be done to prevent suicide at individual, community and national levels. Spreading awareness about it is the first step towards understanding this complex issue.

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year. World Federation for Mental Health announced 10th October as World Mental Health Day in 1992 and celebrates it with a new theme every year. This year, the initiative is being supported by the World Health Organisation(WHO), the International Association for Suicide Prevention and United for Global Mental Health.

The general objective is to spread awareness about mental health issues so that more and more people understand that it is not something to neglect. People suffering from mental health issues may recuse themselves from society and that can potentially make the condition even worse.

World Mental Health Day 2019's goal is "Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention".

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Every year about 800,000 people die due to suicide, which makes it one suicide every 40 seconds. Hence, this year's theme is "40 seconds of action". The objective is to raise awareness about the surging numbers.

Mental Health and India:

India sees more than two lakh suicides each year, many of them by young adults aged 15 to 39 years, according to the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2016. Additionally, more women die as a result of suicide in India than men. WHO data also show that the rate of suicide in India is 16.3 per 100,000 or 2.2 lakh suicide deaths a year, this amounts to more than one-fourth of all deaths by suicide in the world.

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According to a WHO-led study, which calculated treatment costs and health outcomes in 36 low-, middle- and high-income countries for the 15 years from 2016-2030, low levels of recognition and access to care for depression and another common mental disorder, anxiety, result in a global economic loss of a trillion US dollars every year.

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