A former Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Olufemi Olugbile, has warned that glamourisation of suicide in the media might lead to copycat suicidal behaviours.

Olugbile, a Consultant Psychiatrist, said this on Friday during a webinar on suicide reporting.

The webinar was organised by the Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN), in collaboration with the Retreat Healthcare and the Nous Foundation Nigeria.

The theme of the webinar was, “Responsible Suicide Reporting: Role of Nigerian Journalists.”

Olugbile spoke on the topic “Why Suicide Should Be Seen As A Mental Health Issue.”

He said social media bullying and modeling, as well as availability of information concerning ways of carrying out the act, might increase its likelihood.

Olugbile noted that about 800,000 suicides happened globally yearly, putting the suicide rate in Nigeria at 6.9 per 100, 000 population per year.

According to him, persons 30 years and below are more involved in suicide, adding that suicidal attempts are more common among females, while completed incidents are more in males.

“Stigma associated with a previous incident might become the reason for suicidal behaviour,” he said.

The psychiatrist noted that an existing Nigerian law treated suicide as a criminal act, and called for a paradigm shift to regard a survivor as a patient and not a culprit.

He advised the media to desist from reporting suicide from the sensational criminal incident attitude.

Rather, Olugbile urged journalists to adopt the approach of reflecting ‘it as an illness.’

Olugbile noted that reflecting ‘suicide as an illness’ was a humane, modern and evidence-based approach to its reporting.

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Also, Ms Lade Olugbemi, mental health advocate, said Nigeria needed to evolve a national suicide prevention strategy to reduce it in the country.

Olugbemi, a UK based Nigerian lawyer, and Founder, Nous Foundation, said the Coroner’s Act and the role of the coroner should be made more active in disclosing the source of death.

She advised that journalists should embrace responsible reporting that made them aware of critical risk factors such as level of stigmatisation, copycat effects, harmful speculations and suicide prevention strategies.

“We need to be careful with our choice of words when reporting suicide.

“The media should stop using the word ‘a man commits suicide’ but use ‘man dies by suicide,” she said.

Olugbemi said media reporting occurred globally, and the harm to which this coverage could contribute to its rate had been acknowledged.

She appealed to the government to decriminalise suicide in the country, increase data on suicide and awareness of its prevention.

Commenting, Dr Olufemi Oluwatayo, a consultant psychiatrist and author of  ‘In the Morning After,’ a book, highlighted recommendations for reporting suicide for the media.

Oluwatayo recommended that the media should avoid giving details of the method used; placing the story in a prominent part of the paper or news; giving personal details or photographs of the person involved, among others.