Data for the first nine months of 2025 show a worrying situation in the field of mental health in Kosovo, bringing to attention the lack of policies and institutional mechanisms for suicide prevention.
According to the Kosovo Police, 13 people have committed suicide in Kosovo, a phenomenon that occurs due to various factors, economic, social, psychological, mental disorders, problems, lack of self-confidence and others.
Meanwhile, the “Lifeline” Suicide Prevention Center for the first nine months of the year has had 800 calls from people with suicidal thoughts, 3-4 thousand chats and 160 missed calls.
Health institutions report that people with various mental disorders, including cases with self-harming ideas, are treated every day, while mental health professionals emphasize the need for increased care in the treatment and public reporting of these cases. According to them, the way media reporting can have a direct impact on society, especially on people in a fragile emotional state.
The Director of the Psychiatry Clinic at UCCK, Faton Kutllovci, told KosovaPress that this clinic treats people with mental disorders every day, including cases with suicidal thoughts. According to him, the treatment is done with special care and based on a professional assessment for each case.
Kutllovci appealed for the media to report responsibly on these cases, warning that detailed reporting could have a negative impact on society.
In addition to unethical media reporting, Kutllovci said that there are two other negative effects: stigma, the words that if you visit a psychiatrist you are a person with serious mental defects, and the influence of pharmacists, who tell them that the therapy they are receiving is severe and the person with suicidal thoughts discontinues therapy.
He also announced that the current law on mental health has shortcomings and that a new draft of the bill is already in the public consultation phase.
“In the Psychiatry Clinic, on a daily basis we treat both outpatient and inpatient people who manifest mental disorders, which can give rise to suicidal ideas. Depending on the mental disorder that manifests, we also plan the treatment of the person who manifests suicidal ideas, because we must be very careful… When considering the reporting that is done on people who have committed suicide, we must be very careful, because this is very harmful because the reporting on these cases should not be detailed, because we must take into account the fact that during this period, in our society, there may be a certain and considerable number of people who manifest suicidal ideas, but who have not yet found the strength to carry out the act and, if the media now report it with photos, even the place where the suicide occurred and the way it was carried out, they will develop what is called copycat or copying syndrome, where people who manifest suicidal ideas copy the person “which has already been implemented and unfortunately I can say that the media can have a negative impact.. The current law on mental health has shortcomings and these shortcomings have been identified by the Health Committee of the Parliament of Kosovo. They have given recommendations where it should be changed and the Ministry of Health has created the committee which has already completed the draft law on mental health, which is now in public consultations,” said Kutllovci.
Meanwhile, the director of the organization “Line of Life”, Bind Skeja, has stated that this organization is facing financial difficulties and a lack of staff, which has forced the reduction of service hours. From 14:00 to 2:00 as the schedule has been, it has been forced to be reduced from 18:00 to 22:00, the reason for this schedule, according to him, is that at this time there are the most calls, with three supervisors, five operators and 20 volunteer operators.
He announced that hundreds of calls for help have been received in recent months, while thousands of communications have been made through digital platforms.
Skeja emphasized that Kosovo still does not have a law or specific strategy for suicide prevention and that there is a lack of formal cooperation with central institutions, despite the training that this organization provides to security institutions.
“For the first nine months we had about 800 calls and by the end of 2024 we also opened the possibility to write through an application chat, there we had more than 3-4 thousand chats, here they do not necessarily reflect a unique individual in the sense that each call is from a different person, it was that the same person called us several times, we cannot identify them because we maintain anonymity. Within the first six months of 2025 we tracked how many missed calls there were that tried to call us but we did not have enough staff to answer, there are about 160 calls… We have reached a situation, we do not have money to continue the lifeline as we thought, so the hours had to be shortened.. 7:58 I do not know of a policy that has been passed for suicide prevention and it is not that there is a strategy for this, the law on mental health does not mention suicide anywhere”, said Skeja.
On the other hand, psychologist Kristian Halilaj explained that long-term depressive states, loss of motivation and destructive thoughts are key factors that lead an individual to serious psychological crises. He emphasized that professional treatment and psychological support are necessary, as family help is often not enough to cope with these conditions.
“A long phase in a depressive state and loss of motivation for life and contact, destructive and destructive thoughts of a person determine his path to suicide and this is as a kind of solution to get away from the void that a person in a state of crisis and depression sees as a kind of solution to end the pain. 6:27 These people mainly need to receive psychological treatment and then professional help, because family help is often insufficient to reinforce the system of values and self-confidence that a person in a state of depression can have,” said Halilaj.
According to Kosovo Police data, during 2025, 13 people committed suicide, while in 2024 19 people and 2023 42 people committed such an act.
If you have suicidal thoughts or feel depressed, visit a psychologist or call the toll-free Lifeline at 0800 12345 or write in the chat as an anonymous person, reports KP.