Today during a Yerevan-Moscow-Astana-Kiev-Kishinev video conference on the subject of suicides, experts discussed the issue, presented statistical data; national specificities of minors who had committed suicides were also mentioned. Russia is on top of the list of countries with the highest suicide rate among minors in Europe – more than 200 children and 1500 minors. Russia is not the only CIS country with a high suicide rate. It was mentioned that 30 out of 100 thousand people in Kazakhstan commit suicide, 20 in Ukraine, 17 in Moldova and 2 in Armenia. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Hrant Avanesyan, the head of the department of General Psychology, said that in terms of age, the minors were considered as a risk-bearing group, “When a person has already gone through the process of self-perception, planning his future self-realization, physiological and psychological processes also become more active. This issue has always interested everyone – as for why minority is risk-bearing, the reason is that there are rather many clashes in the process of adapting to the society among minors.”
According to Avanesyan, there has been an increase in discussions on the subject recently, it is conditional on the fact that the issue is flexuous, although, it has always been in the spotlight, now they forget about it, now they become more active. As for who should deal with this issue and who is responsible, Avanesyan stated, “Certainly, there is a need for large-scale state programs, since this age is involved in the educational system and the experts of the field should keep the issue in the spotlight. NGOs should deal with this issue
professionally, psychologists, sociologists and pedagogues should talk about it only after researches – the issue is eternal, but it transforms, changes its face and remains the same in essence. And most importantly, it is the family, the minor should have a respective communication area in the family, he should always be the focus of attention and get love he needs.”
Experts of preventing children’s suicides will appear at schools in Russia in the short-run. According to Avanesyan, it is a primitive means, but it is a necessity and it is worth following their example. However, “first of all, at least psychologists should work with children, which is not introduced at our schools yet, then only narrow specialists. The presence of psychologists at schools will make this problem less acute.”
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As for priests’ visits to schools, Avanesov added that it would undoubtedly have a positive impact, because the church also had things to do regarding this issue, “It is a different matter that it is a bit hard for the children of that age in the modern society to perceive the values that the religion, the church adheres to, they want to be modern and find all answers there.”
Suicides have always been talked about, the problem has always been there, but, according to Avanesov, it has become more acute or less acute from time to time depending on the period, social and economic conditions.
Eva HAKOBYAN
