Government commended for decriminalizing attempted suicide

Executive Secretary of Mind Freedom Ghana, a mental health NGO based in Accra, Dan Taylor, has commended Parliament for the passage of a bill to amend the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, to decriminalize attempted suicide.

In an Interview with GBC NEWS, Mr. Taylor said the phenomenon is more of a mental health issue than a criminal act, therefore it should be given the needed attention. Parliament on Tuesday passed the Criminal Offence Amendment Bill, 2021.

If assented to by the president, it will ensure that survivors of the phenomenon will no longer be at risk of being apprehended, prosecuted and penalized. They would rather receive medical and psychological help.

Mr Taylor who urged Ghanaians to look out for the mental well-being of their fellow Ghanaians called for intensive education on attempted suicide to help eliminate it. He asked the public to ignore the news circulating on social media that the bill is a yardstick to promote suicide in the country.

“I must commend parliament for getting this amendment done after a long advocacy by our organization and other groups to get this law amended. This law was put into practice in 1960 by government by then and interestingly, it was replicated from the British law but then in 1962, the England repealed this law and then they criminalized attempted suicide. Social media, there were some interesting comments about this law being amended. Some were saying that this is a license to die and freedom to die and all of that. No! It shouldn’t be so. What we need to know as a public is that, once somebody attempts to kill himself there is an underlying factor, so I think the most important thing is to look out for such conditions from people who will attempt to kill themselves and give them the necessary support to seek treatment” Mr. Taylor said.

The Executive Secretary of Mind Freedom Ghana, said going into the future, there is the need to have a lot of education about this issue of attempted suicide. He explained that someone who would want to take his or her due to a certain situation which he or she is no longer able to contain.

“One would ask, why would the person get to that point in life? It has to do with issues of mental health conditions. Maybe the person is feeling depressed, or feeling anxious about certain things. Quite a good number of issues will push people to that point where they would want to take their lives. At that time, they will no longer say “I am worthless. They will rather say I am completely useless in this” he said

He said people do not take the issue seriously due to ignorance and wrong perception. He urged groups and individuals to incorporate issues of mental health in their activities to make people realize what to do in such situations.

“It is up to us as a society to actually come to terms with issues of mental health that occur in our lives on a daily basis. But I think it’s high time we take a lot of interest in mental health so that people won’t get to the point where they would want to kill themselves’’ he added

Mr Taylor said society must be very concerned once individuals start withdrawing from the public eye.