Reaching New Heights: A proactive approach to preventing suicide

Kazakhstan is on a path to making mental health – especially for children and young people – a primary national concern.

At home, Dina* has plenty of interests. The 14-year-old plants trees, cares for the garden and dances to K-pop videos in the living room.

At school, things are more difficult, and interacting with peers, stressful.

“They are not like me,” Dina said. “We do not share the same interests.”

Recently, however, Dina has addressed her feelings of stress and anxiety with the help of Bakhytkul Seitkhanova, an educational psychologist.

“[Seitkhanova] taught me to express my thoughts openly,” Dina said. “I feel now that I should never give up.”

Dina was paired with Seitkhanova in 2020 after an assessment conducted as part of the Adolescent Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention Programme (AMHSP), a pivotal school- and health-care-based adolescent mental health awareness and suicide prevention programme in Kazakhstan.

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