Análise multivariada da gestão pública da saúde mental e impacto sobre as ocorrências de suicídio na América do Sul

Abstract

The public policy system plays a decisive role in combating the suicide, devising and developing solutions so that government and society can jointly develop strategies to improve the current scenario. This paper aims to perform a multivariate analysis of suicide rates in South American countries according to the performance of public management in mental health, based on data provided by the WHO. The countries were grouped according to the similarity of management indicators through hierarchical clustering with standardized Euclidean distance and average linkage method (UPGMA). The formed groups showed evidence that countries with more recent suicide prevention programs and strategies as well as greater availability of professionals, beds, and specialized hospitals had lower suicide rates.