The vortex of pain and helplessness that grips a person and drives them to end their life can be triggered by a complex web of forces that leaves loved ones to agonise endlessly on the cues they could have missed.

These triggers have intensified and, from 2022 to date, the Richmond Foundation is being contacted by more than one person a day contemplating taking their own life.

Not only that, in just three years, Richmond has had to double its therapists’ complement and quintuple its therapy space; and they still cannot cope.

This worrying situation is not just unique to Richmond. The Chamber of Psychologists recently voiced concern about the “crisis in mental health services”, where waiting lists keep getting longer and psychologists are burned out.

And the urgency for these services keeps growing… at every level of society, young and old, but mostly getting younger.

What is leading to a spike in the pleas for help? Increased awareness, depression and anxiety are among the reasons help is sought but therapists are encountering an increasing trend of young men – especially in their late teens and early 20s – wanting to end their life because of relationship issues.

Successful suicide is more common in males – more than 80 per cent of deaths by suicide in Malta are men – although women tend to attempt suicide more, and these statistics are starting to shift in Malta and worldwide, especially among teenage girls.

Commissioner for Mental Health, Denis Vella Baldacchino recently lamented that the mental health well-being in Malta was being eroded by too many buildings, cars, pollution and a lack of greenery and recreational space.

Societal pressures, on youngsters too, have increased

All this, coupled with drug and alcohol abuse, contributes to dragging a person deeper into a suffocating hole of helplessness. Societal pressures, on youngsters too, have increased, with several studies linking time spent on social media with higher psychological distress, self-harm, bullying and suicidal ideation.

A recent study commissioned by The Malta Foundation for the Well-being of Society, as part of its Promote Online Protection Project – P.O.P-Up, revealed that 18 per cent of children aged seven to 10 spent more than three hours a day online.

While online social connections are essential fodder for teens, these often peddle a vacuous social interaction measured by metrics and glorify disordered behaviour.

And let us not forget other oft-unspoken mental health issues among migrants and third-country-nationals, or the strong stigma still prevalent in Gozo associated with seeking help.

This despair has to be rigorously addressed on several levels.

The State would do well to start by urgently wrapping up its sectoral agreement for psychologists and make the position more appealing for new graduates, to ensure it can provide immediate help to those who need it.

This would, hopefully, also pave the way to address the lack of resources in schools to ensure students have direct access to psychological help when they seek it.

Positive changes have been made but these are clearly not enough. Stakeholders, policymakers, NGOs and mental health professionals should all come together to consolidate existing services – for starters having too many helplines is confusing – and work together to identify gaps that remain unaddressed.

Although there is this perceived notion that the rate of suicides increased in recent months, police data obtained by Times of Malta show the numbers have remained stable.

Let us all strive to ensure the increased cries for help do not translate into lost lives because we were too late in delivering the life-saving service to pull them out of the dark hole.