2015•03•06     Kuala Lumpur

On 23 February 2015 UNU-IIGH and the World Bank Tokyo Development Learning Center co-organized a virtual knowledge sharing session titled “Suicide Prevention: Country Experience from Malaysia”. Around forty participants connected from Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, Preventing suicide: A global imperative, the suicide rate of Malaysia is 3 per 100,000 people and the second lowest suicide rate in the ASEAN+3 countries. For comparison, the global average suicide rate is 11.4 per 100,000 people. WHO’s goal by 2020 is to reduce suicide rates by 10%. Remarkably, Malaysia achieved a 23.9% decrease between 2000 and 2012 while.

According to the 2012 National School-based Student Health Survey, the prevalence of suicidal ideation of students was 7.9%. Even if rates seem low by comparison, suicide prevention is still a priority issue.  This is because, the Malaysian government recognizes that suicide is not only one of the significant health challenges but also a social and development challenge. This would be similar in many other countries.

Dr. Atsuro Tsutsumi at UNU-IIGH facilitated the session with two distinguished guests — Dr. Nurashikin Ibrahim from the Malaysian Ministry of Health and Dr. Andrew Mohanraj from Perdana University.  They shared their expertise on suicide prevention from a policy and clinical challenges perspective followed by an active questions and answer session.

This virtual sharing session was a great opportunity to compare experiences, good practices and current challenges in Malaysia and its adaptation to other countries.

The session video can be viewed on the World Bank Tokyo Development Learning Center website. The session overview is also available in Japanese.