Police officials say procedure was followed in suicide response

A teenage girl, who attempted to hang herself from a tree on Christmas Eve, has now been offered counselling services, police officials have said.
Corporal Claudina Nathaniel-Morgan of the Police’s Youth Intervention Unit said that in addition to offering counselling and medical treatment, the police had visited the family on several occasions to ensure the victim’s wellbeing.
“They were referred to counselling services. She [the victim] should have gone to get medical
assistance as well,” Nathaniel-Morgan said. “Visits were made to the family to ensure that they followed through with getting the child the assistance that she needs.”
Residents, speaking anonymously to OBSERVER media, had raised concern that the police had returned the girl to her family without offering counselling assistance.
Nathaniel-Morgan said to the best of her
knowledge, the police followed standard procedure for such incidents, and any lapse in the victim receiving proper care would be a result of the family’s decisions.
“I know that on Christmas Eve it was immediately decided that she would have gone to Mount Saint John’s [medical center], which is the norm for situations like that,” she said. “I am not aware that the system did not work as per the norm in this situation. Anything that did not happen would have been on the part of the family if they did not pursue what they were told to do.”
Family members had reportedly rushed to the assistance of the young girl when the incident occurred. After the rope that was tied around the Neem tree outside her home reportedly broke, the diabetic young girl was not rushed to the hospital, as she was reportedly not significantly harmed.