Phalombe Police Officer in charge Joyce Mtambo has asked male police officers in the district to always open up whenever any issue concerns them in a bid to deal with suicide among men.
Mtambo made the plea during mental health awareness meeting which the women police officers’ network organised for the male police officers in order to understand reasons that lead men to be committing suicide.
In an interview, the officer in charge said through the meeting they have noted that most male police officers have issues which they do not tell their friends that result in them resolving for suicide.
“The nature of our job normally we work with people and most times we observe that our male officers look emotionally disturbed which affect our work. So we have learnt that some issues include culture which tells that they are head of families and all problems lie on their heads,” she said.
Mtambo said they now know the source of problems that affect the officers then they will sit down and look for solutions.
In a separate interview, Jessie Nkosi who is the district’s Chairperson for the women police officers’ network said the network is concerned with numbers that more men are committing suicide in the country due to various reasons hence organizing the meeting.
She said; “We have noted through interaction that we had today that most men are dying due to financial problems hence we engaged religious leaders and health experts to provide advise on how we can handle stress and depression.”
In his remarks, Sheikh Abdul Sitolo commended the police for organising the event saying through advises most male police officers have been helped emotionally that suicide is not a solution.
“The message here was simple that suicide is not a solution of dealing with problems, and through the interactions that we had I am sure most participants have learnt lessons,” he said.
In Malawi, reports of suicide cases have been increasing recently with authorities saying most of people who commit suicide are men.
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