January 14, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region Government keeps ignoring the increasing rate of suicides in many local towns.

Psychiatrists say suicide rate is directly proportional to the local economic situation. Sverdlovsk Region’s Senior Psychiatrist Oleg Serdyuk says Yekaterinburg is one of the least affected cities.

‘Other towns, in the meanwhile, have a much higher suicide rate than others. I am talking about cases with actual lethal outcomes here. Economy is definitely a factor,’ Serdyuk said.

‘The social policies that crush the population influence the number of suicides directly,’ says head of Pine Forest Sverdlovsk Region Neurosis Clinic Mikhail Pertsel.

According to Serdyuk, psychiatrists produce reports for the Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Internal Affairs Department every year, but suicidal rate does not get any lower in the constituency’s depressed locations.

The local labor market grew much weaker over the course of last year, with some 15,000 people losing their jobs. Kachkanar was one troubled location, where about 150 timber plant employees were made redundant at the end of the year.