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Today, September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day to raise awareness about suicide and to provide psychotherapy to persons who may have tendencies to commit suicide.

In view of the Wold Suicide Prevention Day, Head of Pyschology of the University of Ghana, Prof. Joseph Osafo who has 12 years of pyschological experience shared his research findings about suicide in an interview on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'.

Prof. Joseph Osafo outlined that, according to a World Health Organization (W.H.O) data, "close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds".  

This, he noted, is very alarming and a more reason why the Government of Ghana should take pyschological problems seriously and deal with them.

He detailed that suicide is one of the major causes of death on earth and in Ghana, thousands of the population take their own lives each year.

He disclosed the rate of suicide in Ghana is over 5 percent and it is also proven that Ghanaians who commit suicide use the most lethal methods ever in the world.

"For the past 10 years, we have decided to collect huge data and ask what is Ghana's state like in terms of the number of people. In fact, W.H.O estimates that suicide rate in Ghana is about 5...percent. That's about 1,600 a year; that's quite a big number."

Prof. Osafo appealed for suicide to be decriminalized in the country but rather people with mental health problems should be referred to pyschologists who can help cure them.

''In Ghana and in most parts of Africa, when people go through adversities, if you don't keep an eye on them; they will be gone'', he stated.