On September 10, the Center for Research and Intervention on Suicide, Ethical Issues and End-of-Life Practices (CRISE) highlighted in The Duty World Suicide Prevention Day by denouncing the fact that, “since spring 2024, no research network dedicated to suicide prevention has been funded by a Quebec provincial funding agency” and that the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) now only relies on research targeted by its officials. Should we be surprised? CRISE has understood this well: there is a very clear link between suicidal behavior and social inequalities, and prevention “must go beyond mental health intervention.” However, as a society, should we not denounce even more severely the government’s inertia in the face of anything that hinders access to housing, food, quality educational services, physical and psychological health care, in short, to what allows us to live with dignity? As the Czechoslovak journalist Milena Jesenská — Kafka’s former companion who ended her days in the Ravensbrück camp — recalled, every economic or political decision has profound psychological implications, as strong as those of a love letter: “It affects our body, it sticks to our skin like our shirt, it intrudes into our hearts like our most intimate feelings.” The distress that is rife in our society, and which leads a dozen people to the emergency room every day for having attempted suicide, must be linked to the growing disinterest of leaders towards the beneficiaries of public services. Let us dare to hope that the next government will know how to believe in public investment, a guarantee of collective well-being and, therefore, of societal prosperity.
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