49. §70 of the Second Report and Attachment 3-10 show that depressive
tendency is the most prominent factor in suicides among students aged
15-17, and one of the top three causes of suicide among students aged
12-14. Difficulty in adapting to school is also a major cause of suicide
among students aged 12-17. The NHRC also found from Attachment 311 of the Second Report that funding for life education decreased
significantly from 2018-2021, and that total life education participation
in 2020 was less than 1/10 of the total number of participants in 2018.
50. Recommendations:
(1) Increase the budget for child suicide prevention and life
education.
(2) The NHRC will continue to monitor the utilization and
effectiveness of MOHW's Suicide Prevention Hotline with
regard to the urban-rural gap in child counseling resources.
(3) The Government should identify the factors that are detrimental
to children's mental health, such as the above-mentioned causes
of child suicide, academic pressure, school bullying, etc. and
address the causes of the problem.
(4) Schools and regional mental health centers should strengthen
horizontal connections and collaboration mechanisms to actively
support children's mental health and prevent suicide.
Accident Injury
51. According to statistics from Ministry of Transportation and
Communications (MOTC) for 2018-2020, there has been no significant
decrease in the number of traffic fatalities in the past 3 years, while the
number of injuries has increased from 25,247 in 2018 to 27,519 in 2020.
According to MOHW’s statistics, the total number of drowning deaths
from 2016 to 2020 is 1,667, of which 24.03% were aged 10-14 and
24.79% were aged 5-9, both higher than adults. However, MOHW’s
Implementation Plan for Child and Youth Safety has not been revised
with rolling wave planning to adapt to actual circumstances.
52. There is a lack of comprehensive accident injury monitoring data for
children in Taiwan. §65 of the Second Report only lists the number of
"fatality" in accidents, and lacks statistics of "injury" occurred in
29