Have a mental health happy hour everyday – Kuruleca

Leading mental health expert in Fiji is urging people to take out at least an hour a day to do what they enjoy the most and focus on their mental health and reduce stress level.

Speaking at the launch of the Mental Health Month Program, Acting Chairperson of the National Committee on Prevention of Suicide, Selina Kuruleca says they are advocating on Mental Health Happy Hour this year which is spending one hour everyday dedicated solely to looking after yourself and doing something that you enjoy, and it cannot be done with any form of substances.

She says they also know that during stressful times people usually tend to use coping mechanisms which are not very healthy.

72 people have committed suicide up to August this year compared to 89 people for the same period last year while 66 people attempted to commit suicide up to August compared to 81 last year.

Kuruleca says suicide is not about mental illness alone but it is a general public health problem and all of us need to work together.

The theme for this year's World Suicide Prevention Day which is tomorrow is ‘Working Together’.

If you need to talk to someone, you can call Lifeline Fiji at any time on 1543 if you are a Vodafone user or their landline on 132 454 or you can call Empower Pacific’s 24-hour counselling helpline numbers on 7765 626 for Digicel users and 2937 141 for Vodafone users.