New legislation approved by the Jalisco State Congress obliges two public health agencies to develop policies to attend to people with potential suicidal tendencies.
Under the new guidelines, the Secretaría de Salud Jalisco (SSJ) and Instituto Jalisciense de Salud Mental (SALME) must come up with protocols that guarantee “multidisciplinary treatment” for all patients showing any signs of suicidal behavior. This effectively means creating teams of qualified personnel in various areas to attend to these kinds of patients on a long-term basis.
The two agencies are also obliged to undertake suicide prevention outreach in the community, professionalize personnel on the treatment of suicide prevention and treatment, and to detect people with such tendencies.
The agencies must also create procedures to provide support to families and institutions with connections to people who have taken their own lives.
The agencies will be required to develop IT platforms that inform the public on how to detect people with mental health issues who may develop suicidal tendencies, as well as publish a database that includes stats on successful and failed suicide attempts in Jalisco.