Creating awareness on suicides

The separatist war in Sri Lanka has been responsible for over 60, 000 deaths. In that same period almost twice as many people have committed suicide in Sri Lanka. Numbers were so high that in 1995 a special commission was set up to tackle the problem. In that year, suicide was the number one killer of Sri Lankans aged between 15-49.

Nearly 70% of people who took their own lives used poison. Though suicide rates have fallen since the peak of 1995, the rates of "self harm" have risen every year at an alarming rate. Across the country, people are swallowing poisons and pesticides, with no intent to die. This is self-harm. Though many of these protest suicide attempts are only semi-serious, 10% of them are fatal.

Not surprisingly, preventing suicide has become a national public health priority. Intent on achieving greater understanding, independent documentary maker, script writer and television producer Heshani Edward, filmed a documentary titled 'The Month of October'. This is one of the few films where cameras were allowed inside the hospitals of Sri Lanka. Focusing on the month of October 2005 when acts of suicide and self-harm were responsible for the deaths of 11 people in one rural hospital and claimed the lives of 400 people across the country, this documentary follows the lives and deaths of poisoned victims and the doctors, social workers and scientists who struggled to save them.

'The Month of October,' will be screened at the auditorium of The International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 2, Kynsey Terrace, on Friday, June 15, at 3:30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. The film maker will be on hand for a short discussion after the 5:30 p.m. showing.