Webinar on Preventing Suicide in Pakistan

An hour-long webinar, organized by Brain and Mind Institute | The Aga Khan University and Taskeen was held on 22nd September 2021 on behalf of PMHC titled Preventing Suicide in Pakistan. The chair present for this webinar was Dr. Zul Merali, Founding Director of Brain and Mind Institute. The panelists included Dr. Murad Moosa Khan, Professor Emeritus in Department of Psychiatry at Aga Khan University and past President of International Association of Suicide Prevention, Dr. Rubeena Kidwai, Clinical Psychologist, Member of Sindh Mental Health Authority & Director Training at SECPAK, Advocate Yasmeen Aftab Ali, Lawyer, Columnist, Researcher, and Political analyst, and Andleeb Abbas, Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Chairperson of National Mental Health Taskforce. The moderator was Dr. Taha Sabir, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Taskeen Health Initiative.

The key objectives for this webinar were to support efforts to prevent suicides associated with poor mental health, build general awareness of the issues among both lay and specialist audiences, enrich the discourse through the dissemination of research, help determine knowledge gaps to be addressed through new research, inform policymaking, and contribute to local, national and global capacity building in suicide prevention.