The growing incidence of suicide, especially amongst the young, is a cause of grave concern. I heard it said on the radio yesterday that 800 people take their own lives each year on the island of Ireland. I am told that 20% of young people between the ages of 12 and 20 years consider suicide at least once. It is a shocking and scary statistic. Are we doing enough about the mental well-being of our young people? Clearly not.
So many people are affected by suicide -children, parents, brothers, sisters, spouses, partners. Their lives are never the same after someone belonging to them takes their own life. It has a stunning effect on a parish and community.
It is often difficult to understand why young people would take their own lives. In the past it was mostly older people suffering for years from depression who resorted to suicide as a way out of their misery. There are all kinds of pressures nowadays that did not exist when I was growing up.
I heard a woman from the Support Group called ‘FLOURISH’ speak recently about this issue of growing concern. She said it was important for all of us to be aware and to show support to those bereaved through suicide. They need a lot of compassion and a lot of support. She said it was important to talk about this issue. It used be thought that talking about it might only encourage some people to go an do it. Not so, this woman told us.
She told us that with young people there are often no prior signs, no prior threats. It just happens out of the blue and takes everybody by surprise.
The parents and family affected are so traumatised that they cannot even speak. Sometimes bereaved families feel that ‘they are exiled in the community’ in which they live.
This is an issue that must concern all of us and our elected representatives. Make sure to remind them when they come knocking on your door that they should be very concerned about the mental health situation and the treatment and facilities available for young people at risk.
(Flourish is a group of people from Lighthouse Ireland and clergy in the Christian churches to try to deal with this issue. Forthcoming workshops will be held on Thursday 4 may 9.30-4.30 in Ballymena Methodist church,Tuesday 19 Sept in Dromantine, newry,Tuesday 3 Oct in Edghill Theology College, Belfast and on Wed 28 February 2018 in Omagh, Co Tyrone. To register: Call Lighthouse on 028-90 755070 or e-mail: emily@lighthousecharity.com)
Interesting that they now say talking about it is good. I think suicide seems to be like an endemic and comes in clusters. When a community has a few suicides then a lot more will follow. I am not sure of the wisdom of talking to all young people about suicide- I think this may help to promote it as a legitimate response. But maybe because of the proliferation of suicide discussion on social media it is better to have a more ‘controlled’ discussion. I also worry about social media campaigns to get people back and organising whole communities to search for loved ones body’s. Some young people crying out for attention might see the impact these suicides have and go down that path. A very difficult topic, and I am not sure what we should do.
Young people who come to this conclusion, very often are not good at sharing, not seeking help, they bottled up things, sealed the wall around them, so they could not see any light or any any way out of this darkness. we have to find way and make initiative to shade the light on them.
in my opinion, family is vital for the young people, if they have experienced the family as love and safety place and they can always get support and comfort from, they are more likely able to share with the family. secondly, family especially parents could encourage people to be positive about things. there is always positive side of every thing. parents can train their children’s positive attitude towards things. there will be light after dark night, keep the hope in the time of darkness.
Dawn, that would be teenagers in general, and you could even say it’s a male characteristic. I don’t think parents have that much influence at this age either. It is a time when teenagers are embarrassed by their parents and are rebelling. I still think the problem needs to be tackled from a society level. Parents worry, teenagers feel misunderstood, society isolates.