(HaberTürk Newspaper, 23 February 2016)
Even the local psychiatrist attempted suicide!
Occurrences of suicide in the 150,000-population district of
Izmir's Torbalı district, which has absorbed many migrants,
decreased when special measures were taken after reaching
record levels, but now suicides are on the rise again. In 2009, 15
people, 4 of them women, killed themselves with revolvers,
by hanging or with drugs.
That same year, nearly 150 people in Torbalı between the ages of
17 and 66 attempted suicide because of family or financial problems.
The district chief at the time, Zeki Arslan, established the Youth
Advisory and Health Services Center staffed by a psychiatrist and
a social worker. Suicidal youths from troubled families were given
psychological support.
Some 1,000 people applied for help from the center in 2010. In the
years after this, the number of applicants continued to decrease,
reaching a low of 350 in 2015. Three months ago the doctor at the
center was transferred and applicants were no longer accepted.
However, after the center closed the nightmarish suicide incidents
began to increase again. In the district, where the number of suicides
had dropped to 3, during the first 45 days of 2016 six people killed
themselves and 40 people tried to do so by taking drugs or wounding
themselves.
Consequently, the previously implemented measures are being
discussed again. Current district chief Aydın Memük said that
"we've started working to keep from going back to the numbers we
saw in 2009. Our people are talking with those who might be
contemplating suicide, one by one, to try to identify a general
problem."
There was even a mass suicide event in Torbalı in 2009. 15 workers
at the construction site of the state hospital, complaining about
getting no pay, went up on the roof of the structure and atop the crane
there. When they got a guarantee that their salaries would be paid
the workers relented.
Dr. Engin K., a psychiatrist, opened a clinic in the district, declaring
that "I'll prevent suicides." A year later he himself attempted suicide (!).
Torbalı district of Izmir province.
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