Bolgatanga, July 13, GNA- Fifteen cases of suicide, among people below 30 years in the Kassena Nankana District, have been recorded, during the past five months at the Navrongo Hospital. Most of the cases were due to depression and frustration and the favoured mode of committing suicide was through taking of rat poison. Mr Sobsar Tawele, Community Psychiatric Nurse in charge of the Psychiatric Unit of the Hospital disclosed this at a seminar on 'The Youth and Mental illness organized in Bolgatanga, for the youth of the Upper East Region.

He noted with concern that, mental problems among the youth were increasing and called on parents and guardians to watch out for symptoms of depression, frustrations, abuse of drugs and alcohol in their wards and seek medical attention as soon as the signs were detected. Mr Tawele noted that young people easily got impatient and frustrated when things did not move according to their wishes and so felt that death would solve all heir problems.

He said good counsel "could do wonders to those on the verge of suicide" and urged parents and the elderly in society not to overlook abnormal behaviour in the young persons close to them, but pay attention and report for medical help when necessary. Mrs Rose Avonsige, an Educationist, who chaired the seminar, appealed to the Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to support NGOs and other stakeholders working to reduce mental illness in the society.

She said targeting young persons in schools with messages of the causes of mental illness and the need to avoid such acts, was one of the best ways of saving the youth from the problem. One of the participants, Simon Asampana, popularly called, Jesus, who is a mental patient, after listening to speeches about the high rate of mental illness among the youth, asked what the Government was doing to help young people from getting mentally ill and unproductive. The seminar was organized by Alliance for Mental Health and Development, a group of 15 groups that have come together to help fight mental illness.