Mr. Berman says findings from agricultural areas of Sri Lanka, India and China show promise. They show that programs are helping to limit access to these poisons.
LANNY BERMAN: "In China, particularly rural or farm women die by suicide by overdose of pesticide. And by creating lock boxes and making it more difficult to have easy accessibility to pesticides, we've been able to show that we can reduce the use of pesticides and thereby the rate of suicide."
There are often clear warning signs before a suicide attempt. Lanny Berman says individuals usually talk about the idea before they try it.
LANNY BERMAN: "When somebody communicates that they are thinking about suicide, threatening suicide, writing about it, in some way communicating that they have suicide on their brain, that indication should be taken seriously."
Another warning sign, he says, is a sudden increase in the use of drugs or alcohol. Warning signs also include expressions of hopelessness or a sense of feeling trapped.
Mr. Berman says the risk of suicide can be more difficult to identify in children. They generally communicate more with other children than with adults. But the other children often do not understand the messages.
As a result, he says, when children speak of suicide, other children rarely report it.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can post comments and find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.
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2013-11-25
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