The acting Executive Director of the Canadian Mental Health Association in Kamloops says preliminary data showing a drop in the number of suicides during the COVID-19 pandemic may not tell the whole story.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Alfred Achoba, says he was expecting to see an increase in suicides as the pandemic has had an effect on people’s mental health.

“Most of the overdose crisis and the deaths we’ve seen may not translate to suicides but we’ve heard of cases of folks who decide to die by suicide by using drugs and that number has not been captured, to be honest, by this release,” he said.

“Within our community we can see that increase already. I mean last year, the numbers we had for suicides in the province was astronomical and to me that reflects that we should see that translate in the number of suicides we have to increase as well.”

Data released on Tuesday by the B.C. Coroners Service said there were 534 deaths by suicide in the province between April 2020 and February 2021, down 12 per cent when compared to the 610 deaths between April 2019 and February 2020 before the pandemic hit.

“A total of 609 deaths by suicide were reported in the 2020 calendar year, an average of approximately 51 per month,” the Coroners said, in a statement. ” That figure is a nine per cent decrease from the 652 deaths recorded in 2019.”

So far through the first two months of 2021, there have been 98 total deaths by suicide, according to the BC Coroners Service.

“I know the report is not yet complete but I believe we should have seen an increase, even just a preliminary one,” Achoba added. “There have been so many effects on our health and well-being during the pandemic, and that number should translate to the feedback that we’re getting from members of our community about the depression, about the anxiety, and stress on their well-being in general.”

“That information will not transfer to the coroners in most cases. I would have loved to see more work being put into the release before it was put out to the public.”

A survey released by the CMHA during Mental Health week earlier this month, showed 37 per cent of British Columbians and people living in the territories reported a decline in their mental health since the onset of the pandemic last year.

Of the 376 British Columbians surveyed, a total of seven per cent of British Columbians surveyed were reporting suicidal thoughts or feelings, while 11 per cent of the people surveyed said they were not coping very well when it came to stress related to the pandemic.

Achoba says a person’s mental health may not necessarily improve just by easing provincial COVID-19 restrictions, but he notes it will help.

“We need people to be able to move around, to enjoy what did pre-pandemic and that is really helpful to improving our mental health,” he added. “We’d encourage anyone out there to take care of their mental health by going out. We need more people to cheer for each other as a community, because the pandemic took that away from us.”

“Once things settle down, its important to bring back mental health back to our community.”