Young people need to talk about and be taken seriously on the issue of suicide, say pupils from Corpus Christi College in Belfast, working with Children’s Express.
| Young people, the most at risk group in society, are the least aware of the seriousness of suicide. |
Suicide is wrong, isn’t it? Church and state says so yet people don’t seem to want to talk about it and nobody likes to admit that they ever contemplated it.
It’s almost like it doesn’t exist in the real world. Yet the statistics speak for themselves.
- Before the year 2000 the number one killer of men under 25 was Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs).
- Since then suicide has become the number one cause of premature death of males under 25.
- In NI suicide is the 8th leading cause of death in all age groups.
- It accounts for over 25% of all deaths of young people.
- Young men are 3 time’s more likely to commit suicide than women, though more women attempt suicide (often referred to as para-suicide).
So how come society can’t acknowledge the scale of the problem, start talking about it and treat it with the seriousness it deserves?
Before you accuse us of being melodramatic consider this. Think of the vast resources and money that are ploughed into reducing the number of RTAs: DoE advertisements on television, radio and billboards; road safety campaigns in schools; policing measures and road improvements.
Now contrast this with the limited response to the current suicide crisis among the young! We’re not saying to cut all road safety advertisements; we’re just saying balance the scale of the problems with a similar commitment to raising public awareness and seeking to reduce the numbers of suicides.
Young people, the most at risk group in society, are least aware of the seriousness of suicide. The subject is rarely discussed within the home or in school and consequently young people are ill equipped to cope with the emotional crises that can provoke a suicide attempt.
Suicide rarely makes headline news, unlike RTAs, but the impact on the family can be equally devastating. Parents, brothers and sisters will feel the effects differently. Response may also vary by gender. Normally men hide their feelings whilst women let their feelings go. Long after the suicide has taken place the family will still be living with its consequences. It can result in depression and drug or alcohol dependency. It can even lead to a further suicide attempt.
Personal Social Education programmes in school try to prepare us for life as adults. Suicide doesn’t appear to be on this curriculum. There could be many reasons for this one of which could be that teachers and adults don’t want to tell children about suicide for the simple reason that they do not want to put ideas into their heads.
On the other hand, if young people had more opportunity to learn and to talk about suicide maybe they would understand better the seriousness of attempting suicide and therefore avoid doing so.
It's time we as a society faced up to the reality of suicide and started talking about it more openly.
About the team
This article was produced by Thomas McCorry, 15 and Gerard McFadden, 14, from Corpus Christi College in Northern Ireland, with members of Children’s Express. It was published in the Andersonstown News.
