Mr Sylvester Basagnia, the Upper West Regional Mental Health Coordinator, has observed that untreated depression is a leading cause of suicidal ideations and poses a high tendency of suicide among people.

He said depression is an embodiment of many factors that ideate thoughts of suicide among people in the face of some challenges life presents before them.

Within a period of Eight Months in 2021,  the Upper West Region recorded 17 suicide deaths according to the Mental Health Department of Ghana Health Service.

The Development According to the Department Needs serious attention.

Some Instances

1. A young man has committed suicide by hanging himself, today, Monday 10th, 2020 within a section of Wa, called Wa “Mangu” in the Upper West Region. The young man is believed to be in his early twenties.

2. Information reaching the BBC Ghana newsdesk this morning indicates that a newly trained teacher has committed suicide murder in the Upper West Region of the country. The Incident occured on 8th May 2020.

The late Irene Owusu Badzi was a student of Tumu College of Education in the Upper West Region of Ghana but hailed from the Volta region of the country.

3.A 56-year-old man has committed suicide after allegedly killing his elder brother at Kanyini, a small community near Sombo in the Nadowli/Kaleo District in the Upper West Region.
Police at Kaleo said they received information about the development on Friday, February 21, 2020. The incident according to the police occurred around 6:30pm that day.

4.In the early hours of Friday 26th January, 2019 at 9:00am.A final year student of university of development student(UDS)-wa campus Enoch Akondor was discovered in cold blood in his room.

5. Residents of Danku in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region  woke up on Monday 2nd March 2020 to the ugly sight of a young man suspected to have committed suicide by hanging.

The ” lifeless” body of the young man was seen dangling with a nylon rope on his neck & tied to the roof of an uncompleted building.

6.This man (Number 2) who disclosed he is a native of  Kokoligu in the Nandom Municipality attempted to end his own life earlier this morning, 25th of March 2022, in a toilet facility located at Jirapa-Zongo.

He hanged a rope on a wood and was ready to commit the act when a woman who wanted to use the facility bumped into him.

7. A Young Man by name Ganiu Bashiru has hanged himself to death in Danku Community located in the Wa Municipality.

The incident was made Known early hours of 9th January 2023 by Assembly Member of the Area, Hon. Adams Yahaya Jiga.

Source: Upperwestmedia.net