With statistics revealing a “mid-year spike” in suicides here, chair of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS) Dr Wayne West has warned that “there is such a thing as a smiling depression” and called on mental health professionals to lift the lid about the signs which might reveal that an individual is contemplating ending their life.

“One of the things we must also appreciate is that there is such a thing… so someone who is depressed may not necessarily be sad, they may be dancing and having a grand time but hours later they have committed suicide. So I think we need our professionals to give us more pointers as to the things persons may do and say that indicate that they need help,” Dr West, a medical professional, told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

Noting that the JCHS is “very, very concerned” about the statistics highlighted by the Jamaica Constabulary this week, Dr West said depression might be a major factor.

“There are many different causes of suicide but a common cause of suicide is depression. Depression may be a primary mental illness or it may be an aspect of other mental illness but it is something we need to pay attention to. People fail to realise sometimes we understand, for example, that a physical problem like appendicitis, nobody wants appendicitis, similarly nobody wants depression or other mental illness. These are things that come about for various reasons,” he said.

The police, in a statement on Sunday, said a monthly breakdown of the number of suicides recorded in Jamaica this year has revealed a troubling pattern of a mid-year surge in cases.

According to the constabulary, between January and September 2025, a total of 44 suicides were recorded in the country — a 16.9 per cent drop compared to the 53 cases recorded for the similar period last year. However, it said while suicides were consistently lower in the first six months of 2025 compared with 2024, the second half of the year has seen a reversal. The JCF said July 2025 recorded eight suicides, a 33 per cent increase over July 2024; while August and September rose by 20 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, compared with the same months last year.

It noted that the data also points to a geographic shift in suicide cases. Last year, St James, St Elizabeth, St Catherine south, and St Thomas all recorded notable spikes. However, St Catherine north has been disproportionately represented this year, recording four cases in July alone.

A total of 67 suicide deaths were reported last year, one more than the 66 reported in 2023. In 2022, the number was 63; the prior year 50 such deaths were reported. In 2020, the number was 43, while in 2019 there were 58. Last year’s figure was the highest the country has seen since the year 2000, when 77 cases were reported, followed by 75 cases in 2001.

On Monday, the JCHS chair urged individuals to be more observant to others around them.

“So we must be alert as first of all people who are not professionals, but just as we are aware of when somebody has a fever, we should be aware when people are having mental challenges, so that we can take steps to refer them to the professionals. There needs to be a greater awareness of mental health issues among the population so that we can take steps to allow persons to get help as soon as possible,” he told the Observer.

Noting that some individuals “may commit suicide in the context of anger” because they might have “harmed someone, killed someone” Dr West posited that cases now being seen are not necessarily due to this.

“We are speaking about people who are having emotional and mental health challenges; so what they need are individuals to identify it early and intervene early and I think that must be something that we make a priority. I am a medical doctor, I am not a psychiatrist, but it is said that many times persons who are having challenges actually say so; they don’t always, but [some individuals] will actually say so and they may, in various ways, indicate that they are having challenges,” he stated.

Furthermore, he said the stigma around mental illness must also be dealt with.

“We need to put mental health issues and physical health issues in the same category; they are diseases which we have no control over. If I become a schizophrenic I did not seek to make myself a schizophrenic, just like I didn’t seek to make myself have cancer of the colon or hepatitis or appendicitis. These are things which sometimes we understand the process that leads to them and sometimes we don’t and we must begin to see mental illness as we see physical illness. Things that people do not bring on themselves but rather a phenomena that occurs. We need to start having that kind of conversation,” he argued.

Referencing indications by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that Caribbean nations continue to report the highest suicide mortality rates in the Americas, Dr West said this was evidence that some amount of transference has taken place.

“Like all cultural patters it can be learnt; some particular groups had a higher rate of suicide than other groups but traditionally it is said, for example, that blacks tend to have somewhat lower rates of suicide. But like all cultural patterns, if you are exposed to that kind of behaviour among one group it may eventually become part of your culture from observation and so on. So yes, we have to be proactive, and the way we are proactive is being able to recognise those early changes and putting things and having systems in place to address them,” he stated.

On September 10 this year PAHO, pointing to a 17 per cent rise in suicide deaths since 2000 in the Americas — the only region in the world to experience an increase — announced “a new initiative to reverse this trend”.

It said the effort “aims to save lives by equipping countries with practical, evidence-based interventions to save lives”.

PAHO said that in 2021 more than 100,000 people in the Americas died by suicide and while rising rates in North America are a major driver of this upward trend, countries in the Southern Cone are also seeing significant growth, and Caribbean nations continue to report the region’s highest suicide mortality rates.