I bid all of you present here today welcome.
Crisis Resolution Malta directly targets individuals, and, seeks to reach out to those on whom life’s travails, hang heavy, creating unbearable burdens.
It is important that mental health support reaches those who need it before they reach the stage where they feel their life is not worth living any more.
Suicide is a complex phenomenon that can rarely be explained by a single factor. It may be linked to a combination of emotional, social, financial, relationship-related, health or addiction-related difficulties.
Unless such difficulties are addressed through appropriate professional and psychological care, they may lead to cases of suicide, the number of which appears to be increasing from one year to the next.
During the first six months of this year, nineteen suicides were recorded in Malta, eighteen of which involved men. This statistic alone reveals a deeply troubling social reality.
Malta’s first National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2026–2031 establishes a comprehensive, evidence-based framework for addressing suicide as a complex yet preventable public-health concern.
Building upon the Mental Health Strategy for Malta 2020–2030 and informed by professionals, it adopts a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach centred on early intervention, timely and person-centred support.
Suicide Prevention is a national shared responsibility, and everyone has to work hard to recognise that vulnerable people require our help to access appropriate care and support.
We have to detach and elevate suicide from the taboo, stigma and prejudice which has for centuries pervaded the subject.
I hope that this conference will yield meaningful results and contribute to collective efforts aimed at tackling the incidence of suicide at its sources.