Mexico expands suicide‑prevention training for clergy and health professionals

The municipal Religious Affairs office in Playa del Carmen will hold two workshops on July 21 and 24 to train local ministers of faith to recognize depression and intervene in suicide risk. The limited‑capacity sessions, led by a suicide‑prevention psychologist, follow a recent case in which a 14‑year‑old boy died by suicide. Forty clergy have signed up out of a registry of more than 360 ministers.

Separately, the Instituto de Atención Integral y Desarrollo Humano (Intra) and Academia Intra will host a conference on July 24 in Saltillo titled “Contextual Therapies, the New Direction of Clinical Practice.” The event targets health professionals, advanced students and institutional leaders, and highlights acceptance‑based therapeutic approaches that have shown effectiveness for suicidal patients, personality‑borderline disorder, eating disorders and substance use. Speakers include Intra president Javier Enríque Martínez Becerra and operational director Benjamín Villagómez, who emphasized the need for multidisciplinary collaboration in early detection and treatment of mental‑health crises.