By: Liz Main

Liz Main — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:17:41 +0000

A very interesting piece, but I think that drawing a comparison between suicide and a Troubles death or car accident is concerning. The difficulty with reporting suicide is the copycat effect, and while I would agree that it is absolutely essential to report and discuss the phenomenon of suicide, it can be dangerous to report individual suicides and in particular the methodology of suicide. There has been huge attention on Bridgend in Wales, but if you look at the cluster suicides here in Northern Ireland (Ardoyne, Craigavon amongst others) you can very clearly see the impact of media coverage on suicide rates. The accidental glorification of suicide, reporting the funeral for example, can lead to a person who is feeling very alone seeing this as a way of being noticed. Suicide can become an option, or even be seen as a solution, when perhaps the idea woldn’t have been there before. The inclusion of methodology, in particular unusual methods, is particularly dangerous. When a certain type of unusual suicide is reported, often because the details are made public at an inquest, it is common to see a sudden increase in the number of similar suicides or attempted suicides using that method. Similarly, when some years ago Casualty showed a young man killing himself in a certain way, there were mutliple deaths and attempted suicides using the same method in the following week. Some countries, such as Austria, have clamped down on suicide reporting and the effect can be seen. In my opinion, it is very important to debate suicide and look at the phenomenon and why the level is so high here in Northern Ireland. But if you really want to see why the figures fluctuate so much, look at the pattern of cluster suicides, and ask why they occur. I think you might find a lot of it comes back to the media.

Comments on: Shying Away from Suicide

By: Liz Main