Powerful photographs of Lithuanians staging mass lie-down to demonstrate country’s disproportionate suicide rate

A Lithuanian laid down for every compatriot that committed suicide in the last year

(Kipras Kasputis/YouTube)

Hundreds of people united in the Cathedral Square of Lithuania’s capital city Vilnius last week, to protest the government’s inertia over the country’s high suicide rate.

“A colleague of mine committed suicide. The reason was alcohol,” citizen and actor Arūnas Sakalauskas told Bored Panda. “A year later – a classmate. Two more colleagues also committed suicide, followed by another friend and then – an acquaintance. So far, I have lost 8 friends. Then stories started reaching me – someone’s mother, father, brother or a lover committed suicide.

“I live in Lithuania, where people commit suicide three times more often than people in other European countries. Around 1,000 people a year, or almost 3 a day!

Posted by Arūnas Sakalauskas on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Posted by Arūnas Sakalauskas on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

“However, the authorities haven’t made any effective decisions. We only have about 300 volunteers in three biggest cities, and the workload is so huge they can pick up only every fourth or fifth call. We’ve got only 2,8 million people. We seem to have a death wish.”

In addition to setting up a suicide prevention donation hotline, Sakalauskas organised a protest through Facebook, inviting 1095 people to lie down in Cathedral Square - one fo every suicide made in the last year.

Only 500 or so turned up, but the pictures were stark nonetheless, and have helped provoke more debate on social media in Lithuania about the country’s mental health problems.