WE NEED GUARDIAN ANGELS!

The Olive Press takes a trip into Spain’s Suicide Triangle as Alcala la Real, in Jaen, launches a new approach to the problem

THE attractive mountain town of Alcala la Real is topped by a Crusader castle and cascades down a steep hillside, connecting the Guadalquivir Valley with the Granada plains.

Known for its world music festival, Etnosur, the Jaen province market town has a healthy expat population and a rich historical past that stretches back to Roman times. But sadly, today, it also has a darker claim to fame: it is the suicide capital of Spain, and part of the notorious ‘suicide triangle’, formed with Priego de Cordoba and Iznajar, both in neighbouring Cordoba.

With just over 20,000 residents, Alcala has an alarmingly-high suicide rate of 21 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the national average of 8.45 and the world average of nine. Only Lugo and Zamora in Spain’s depopulated north (and barren Alentejo, across the border in Portugal) come close. Spain, in general, is considered a high-risk country for suicides, with an alarming 11 people a day taking their lives, while over 50% of provinces have above average suicide rates.

In Alcala, this is felt acutely: the town has dealt with 300 suicides in the last three decades –the last one being an 18-year-old boy, who was found dead on Christmas Eve. Statistics show that 75% of actual suicides involve men and 25% women. However, with attempted suicides, 60-70% involve women and the main age brackets are 15 to 34-year-olds and those over 65.

FIGHT BACK: The battle has begun against suicide in Alcala

By Jo Chipchase

as it gets colder and the nights draw in. Recent problems, including the long six-year recession and the pressures of the Covid pandemic, which strained people’s finances and mental health, have affected Andalucia’s suicide triangle.

Another key factor is the loneliness felt by single or widowed people, professional stress in a year when more Spanish companies folded than ever before (2022), causing unemployment. Youth depression is also a significant problem in Spain.

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So, what is causing such suicidal tendencies in Alcala, a town that - on the surface - seems to have a lot in its favour? Research suggests that living in remote, mountain areas can fuel suicide rates – partly because of the topography. Historically, many people feel isolated and trapped in Alcala, and have had difficulty socialising.

This is a common factor in Jaen, Granada and Cordoba, as well as parts of inland Malaga and particularly isolated inland regions of Valencia and Castellon. There also appears to be a domino effect, with people influenced by their peer group. And as suicide is a stigmatised topic, people don’t always seek help.

A spokesperson from farmacia Fernando Castenada who has studied the issue, told the Olive Press: “ Historically, this has been a traditional area planted with olive groves. The scenery is not very diverse, people frequently marry within their own families, many hardly ever leave the area, and it has very hot summers. The suicide tendency could also be passed down genetically.”

Weather is certainly found to influence suicides, with the colder, darker weather having a bad influence.

A 2021 study in Cordoba showed that women's suicides coincide more with higher wind speeds (a problem that has afflicted Tarifa, one of the windiest places in Europe) and occur more frequently in Spring (46%), while men’s attempts are higher in autumn (29%)

A recent 2022 survey in Catalunya on the emotional state of adolescents, with 270,000 students aged 12-18, found that 43.4% had experienced suicidal thoughts, while over 40% had ‘hoped not to wake up in the morning’, and 26.8% had self-harmed.

The data is higher than in previous studies, which is alarming.

So what is being done?

Aware that the town must tackle its suicide problem head-on, Alcala has now joined the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD). Funded by the European Commission and launched in Germany in 2004, it links family doctors, mental health specialists, pharmacists, social workers, police, and community volunteers, so they can identify potential suicidal tendencies.

Andalucia’s Minister of Health, Catalina García, signed up Alcala in October, insisting that ‘mental health awareness should be a government objective’, including care for vulnerable adolescents.

To aid this new approach, Alcala’s mayor, Antonio Marino, has teamed up with Benedicto Crespo, an eminent professor of psychiatry at the University of Sevilla.

The director of the Virgen del Rocio Hospital explained that if specialists could ‘detect depression in time, they would be able to prevent suicide’.

A summer course on mental health in childhood and adolescence is now being developed and a local poster campaign is soon to be launched. Nearby,

CALL FOR HELP: 024 is Spain’s national suicide prevention service, operates 24/7 and is free of charge (English spoken).

SAMARITANS IN SPAIN: Call FREEPHONE 900 525 100 between 10am and 10pm to talk to a trained listener in total confidence or: email: pat@samaritansinspain.com in Priego, a ‘Suicide Prevention Committee’ has been set up.

“We are thankful for this project as we know it’s a taboo subject that we must overcome and face with determination,” explained the mayor last year.

“The whole of society must get involved and be guardian an- gels of those you see with a lost look or lowered head. We will only get out of the stigma by taking care of each other…. And breaking the pattern.”

They are strong words, but will it work?

Although the will to stop suicide exists, there are still plenty of problems. Statistics show that only 20% of suicidal people approach primary care services in the days before their attempt, using such services such as Spain’s 061 number.

This is where intervention and professional emotional support can save lives, by pointing out alternative courses of action.

But many people don’t reach out and resources aren’t always sufficiently provisioned. The facts are that Andalucia’s mental health services are overstretched - with long waiting lists – and the pandemic made this worse. Treating depression can be handled slowly and badly.

The Olive Press spoke to one expat grandmother, whose adult daughter had a ‘suicidal episode’, as she calls it, last year.

“The help is practically non-existent,” explained the British expat, based in Granada. “My daughter put her head through a rope and stood on a chair. This tipped over and she blanked out and broke her jaw, bit her tongue, and was covered in blood.”

She continued: “We managed to get there just in time and rushed her to ‘Urgencias’, where she was referred to the public psychiatrist, who was a waste of time.

“They either have pills and sedation, or you must volunteer to be a mental inpatient. “After several weeks, an ambulance finally took my daughter to a mental health ward, which was tiny and non-segregated.

“While there, she formed a relationship with a male inmate, who later turned up uninvited at my home. People are assessed, prescribed, and released with no proper backup. No-one is then keeping an eye out for them.”

There’s also a tendency for busy doctors to simply prescribe antidepressants instead of therapy.

Perhaps what is needed is a national approach, with more mental health provision and intervention, like the one that Alcala is pioneering.

Spain is currently working on its proposed Mental Health Law, that aims to increase the current six psychologists and eight psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants to 18 of each as well as 23 specialist nurses. This is grinding through the legislative process. It would be a success story well worth trumpeting around Spain. We will wait and see.

Food price inflation is big news, with rising costs putting a strain on household budgets and driving an increase in food poverty. Is the Spanish government about to subsidise our groceries – and will it help? asks Jo

Chipchase

FIRST the good news: In Spain, at least, we can still find the food we want to buy. Over in the UK, a shortage of both home-grown and imported fruit and vegetables has led to supermarket rationing, in some places. This has been accompanied by a slew of news stories with the UK government claiming it’s the ‘bad weather in Spain’ – much to the amusement of the media here.

As a spokesman for FEPEX, the Spanish federation of exporters, clarified: ‘There are no problems exporting to any countries in the EU’. Quite simply, higher production costs, the UK’s own farming policies and, particularly, Brexit, have caused the problem.

And those higher production costs are also affecting us in Spain. So, while food items are not being rationed here, they are increasingly unaffordable to many people.

To help struggling consumers, Spain’s Unidas Podemos party recently proposed a discount of 14.4% on a set of 20 basic food items. This is similar, in principle, to the 20 centimos per litre discount that applied at petrol stations between April and December.

And now, hot off the press, Spain’s Minister for Agriculture, Luis Planas, assures us that Spain has “the capacity” to introduce measures such as those being implemented in France, where a 2e price cap is being put on basic products.

The Carrefour supermarket chain will offer shoppers in its 5,945 French stores a basket of 200 basic products for under 2e, from March 15 to June 15.

A constant crisis

Planas previously wasn’t so keen on the subsidy idea, saying that inflation has now finally ‘reached a ceiling’ – despite the prices remaining as high as ever.

He pointed out that the government has already introduced VAT (IVA) reductions on certain foods. On January 1, VAT was cut from 4% to 0% on basic items, including bread, milk, eggs, cheese, fruit, vegetables, and cereals. Tax on oil and pasta also fell from 10% to 5%.

However, these foods remain expensive throughout the nation.

According to a recent study by web portal, Trading Economics, Spain’s food cost 15.5% more in January than January 2022 (the rise is even higher in the UK at 17.1%)

A weekly food shop that cost €200 a year ago in Spain now costs €231.

What exactly has risen?

Data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) confirms that the price of staple foods has reached historic highs.

Around 30 different foods are 10% more expensive than a year ago, including dairy products, such as cheese (22.1%), yoghurt (25.1%), and milk (37.5%).

And it’s really bad news if you like a fry-up: olive oil has risen by 35.2% and eggs by 29.8%.

Meanwhile, rice has increased 21.7%, pasta 19%, bread 15.4%, and breakfast cereals by 11.4%. Vegetables are up by more than 10%.

Maybe it really is time to turn vegetarian: chicken and turkey are up by 15.1%, pork by 13.8% and beef, 13.2%. Frozen fish has increased 13.2% and shellfish, 13.4%.

Why is this so bad?

People with lower incomes, and already stretched families, are disproportionately affected by food price inflation.