Samoa’s Ministry of Police, Prisons and Corrections Services has started a social media awareness campaign to help reduce the rising number of suicides in the country.
The ministry launched on Tuesday, with the first 10 minute episode of SAMOA SAOGALEMU, a Facebook-based series of discussions aimed at eliminating suicides in the country.
Deputy Commissioner Papali’i Monalisa Tia’i-Keti spoke on the program saying that the number of suicides has reached 15 in the first eight months of 2022, compared to 15 for the whole of 2021.
The head of the Criminal Investigations Division, Col Aumua, said that there are many problems families of victims have to deal with and one of these is often the long wait for their loved ones to be released for burial.
He pointed out that because Samoa has no resident clinical pathologist, there’s a long wait as negotiations continue to get a pathologist from overseas.
“Families get very agitated with the long wait but it is a legal requirement of suicides to have an autopsy conducted and it can only be done by a qualified person from overseas,” he said.
A recent Memorandum of Understanding between Samoa Police and the Fiji Police Force will see the availability of a pathologist to work in Samoa when needed.
