107“There has been a change in attitudes towards suicide as a result,” she continues.
“Suicide and suicidal thoughts were viewed as a call for attention, but now we see
it as real pain that someone is dealing with and we pay more attention to it. We
asked everyone to take every case seriously. After the first success stories, the first
lifesaving situations, people were excited because we could see that it worked. We
can help and recognise the risks.”
On the face of it, the Kupiškis Algorithm does not look like much, but this
piece of paper might be the model for rest of Lithuania. The diagram consists of
26 boxes on how to act in a different situation. Šap points out and explains each
of the boxes with the patience of a kindergarten teacher: “This is what you do if
the person wants help at this stage; this is what you do if they don’t. This is what
you do when they say one thing; this is what you do when they don’t.” It is simple,
but has proven to be effective.
“This algorithm has become a pilot model for other municipalities who are im-
plementing something similar. The two biggest cities, Vilnius and Kaunas, have also
learned from this algorithm,” Šap says. “The essence remains the same. It can be
different actors or suicide prevention centres. But the steps are exactly the same.”
A group in the ministry of health is now trying to create an algorithm based on
the Kupiškis Algorithm that could be applied throughout all of Lithuania.
Ambitious goalsBut it is not without challenges to create an efficient suicide prevention pro-
gramme. An important part of the programme includes free consultations with a
psychologist. In the poorer regions, like Kupiškis, an appointment with a psychol-
ogist is not something everyone can afford. To help with the situation a mysterious
entrepreneur named Valdas Calas has stepped in to provide funding for visits. The
mayor, Bardauskas, is concerned that the governmental funding is not enough. He
is grateful for people like Calas who are offering additional aid.
More help may be on its way, however. The Lithuanian government has put suicide
on its agenda and aims to lower the suicide rate to around 20 – 30 per 100,000 per
year by 2020, and to 12 per 100,000 by 2025 – a level similar to Sweden and France.
Yet, there is still no concrete plan on how to achieve this. The head of the Suicide
Prevention Bureau, Marius Stricka, remains sceptical: “We have ambitious goals
but no strategy on how we are going to achieve those goals.”
Over the last 18 months there have been three different health ministers, which
Stricka describes as frustrating. The current minister, Aurelijus Veryga, worked as a
professor in the Department of Health Psychology before taking office last October.
The curse and miracle of Kupiškis, Emil Staulund Larsen and Noah Groves Opinion & Analysis