This story was printed from TODAYonline 
And how parents can playa big role to achieve that
Weekend • August 30, 2008
Ong Dai Lin
dailin@mediacorp.com.sg
DESPITE the stress of childhood in Singapore, is it possible to bring down suicide figures among students from an annual average of about 12 to zero?
Days after the Education Minister detailed the measures schools already have in place to prevent such incidences, one Institute of Mental Health official said the numbers can go all the way down.
The key factor? Parenting, IMH chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr Daniel Fung said on Friday at a regional conference on how to build resilience among youth and children.
“Family is really the key to resilience,” he said. “The key thing is to love our kids and that’s not something the Government can tell you to do. They can’t tell you to love your children.”
Between 10 and 19 students in Singapore committed suicide each year from 2003 to last year.
Dr Fung told Today that “we’ve been more aware of the problem since 2001, (but) we still have suicides and, to me, the ultimate goal is to have no suicides”.
He said that suicides are usually “due to unbearable suffering” and if teenagers can be helped to manage their emotions, they will be less prone to harming themselves and would not take their own lives.
Recognition of this has helped the United Kingdom to have practically zero youth suicide rates, he cited.
His comments come after Education Minister Ng Eng Hen spelt out in Parliament on Wednesday the “comprehensive approach” to prevent suicides among students, including referral systems in schools, where at-risk students are identified for early support and those with suicidal tendencies channelled to psychological, medical and other resources.
Dr Fung believes “we should reinforce the programmes we have now in school and monitor them to see how we can further help the students”, but more crucially, parents should spend sufficient time with their children to guide them about growing up issues, help them with their homework, nurture their growth and, of course, provide a loving environment.
The crucial influence of parenting in buildingresilient youth was echoed at the 5th Congress of the Asian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, hosted by the IMH and held in Singapore for the first time. Some 450 medical and healthcare professionals from 20 countries gathered at Suntec City for the three-day congress that began on Friday.
Dr Fung, who is the president of the organising committee, said this year’s theme on building resiliency among Asian children is timely and relevant for Asian child psychiatrists who are dealing with evolving challenges that include changes in Asian family structures, the proliferation of the Internet and natural disasters.
A child psychiatry textbook featuring local case studies will be launched on Saturday, the first of its kind here.
Published by the IMH, A Primer of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry chronicles clinical experiences and covers a wide range of childhood and adolescent mental health conditions.