Suicide is a criminal act in Malaysia under Section 309 of the Penal Code. But much evidence shows that criminalising suicide reduces help-seeking, hinders the collection of accurate data, and the development and implementation of effective suicide prevention strategies. Based on available public data, suicide is the leading cause of death among young people in Malaysia. IDEAS, in collaboration with Relate Mental Health Malaysia, is hosting a webinar where we will launch a paper co-authored by both organisations. The paper examines the current situation on youth suicides in Malaysia and calls for greater efforts through policy recommendations, including developing a comprehensive suicide prevention guideline for youths.
Opening Remarks:
YAM Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin ibni Tuanku Muhriz Founding President and Chairman of IDEAS
Presentation:
Dr. Chua Sook Ning Founder of Relate Mental Health Malaysia
Vaisnavi Mogan Rao Senior Executive (Social Policy Unit) of IDEAS Moderator: Tricia Yeoh CEO of IDEAS
Panellists:
YAM Tengku Puteri Raja Tengku Puteri Iman Afzan Al-Sultan Abdullah Co-Founder and President of the Green Ribbon Group
Dato’ Dr Andrew Mohanraj President of Malaysia Mental Health Association (MMHA)
YB Michelle Ng ADUN of Subang Jaya
Dr. Nurashikin Ibrahim Public Health Physician and Sector Head for Mental Health, Violence Injury and Substance Abuse, Disease Control Division, Ministry of Health
For those who missed the webinar session and would like to watch it, the video recording of the webinar is available here.
To read full report, please download policy paper here.
