Marcos Lima’s mother picked up the phone to call the radio during a gathering in which psychologists and psychiatrists participated. She recounted in tears that her son did not want to live and could not find the motivation to get out of bed. Marcos has a depression and his mother, fearing self-injurious behavior, raised the alarm dejected and without resources to pay for a psychologist. Access to psychology professionals in the Canary Islands in public health is still scarce and saturated.
Marcos’s mother’s call to the SER aroused the solidarity of the College of Psychology, which since then has been treating Marcos free of charge. “If it had not been for the solidarity of those listeners, I would not have come out of this“says Marcos excitedly, for six months he was ignored by public health despite his suicidal thoughts. “I imagined the situation of jumping out the window of my house and even a gun firing at my head and I was even relieved, at that moment I didn’t see that solution,” Marcos goes on to say.
“The public health system turned its back on me and in my house there are no resources to pay for a private consultation, If today I am saved it is thanks to the people who offered to help me through the radio“, he explains. A Radio Club listener, Isabel, has since paid him the gym so that his mental health is also accompanied by a complementary physical activity.”When we talk about basic rights such as mental health, there must be public institutions that guarantee itIt cannot depend on the solidarity of the people “, denounces Marcos.
“We need the Government to really listen to this, with the heart,” asks Felipe Lagarejo, coordinator of the suicide group at the Official College of Psychology
The Canary Islands have a suicide rate of 9.15 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, much higher than that of the whole of Spain, which places it among the four communities in Spain with the highest rates. “Families fear that they will mug their children or have car accidents when they go out partying, but they should fear this much more, because their children are thirteen times more likely to commit suicide than something like that happens to them, “explains Felipe Lagarejo, coordinator of the suicide group at the Official College of Psychology.. “Suicide is the leading cause of unnatural death in Spain,” he says.
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