Silver Lining?

There has been a recent flurry in the media about the wisdom or otherwise of reporting the details of suicides or even reporting the deaths as suicides. As a proponent of an educated populace I can’t see the retention of information as a good thing without a greater good at play. Given that the research on the greater good (i.e. non reporting prevents further suicide) doesn’t seem compelling then I would probably a adopt a more liberal stance than the current environment of pretty much non reporting.


But that was not the most fascinating thing that I read on this topic. The most interesting piece of information was that after the recent Earthquakes in Christchurch suicides in that area ceased. Now if this was just a Christchurch phenomenon then it would be a great question for trival pursuit but that would be about it. But no apparently this phenomenon has been observed before in other disaster zones. So there appears to be a link between community tragedy mitigating personal tragedy.

The working hypothesis is that in a disaster zone everyone starts to help one another against the immediate problems that community faces and the sense of worthless isolation that a lot of suicide victims face goes away for a time. They become valued members of the community with a purpose.

Doesn’t that sound a bit tragic to you? It certainly does to me that such little gestures can eliminate suicide. And they were little, I wasn’t there but as far as I could tell most people’s contribution was to make sure their neighbours were all right, share the gas fired BBQ with folks who’s power was out etc and shovel endless amounts of liquefaction out of sections and footpaths etc. I am not attempting to undermine a difficult time for these folks but very few were called upon to take heroic actions they basically were just required to be interested in their fellow man and women which they gladly were.

Most people are ignorant of the toll of suicide so to put it in perspective in NZ it is about the same as our road toll, two thirds male and mostly young people (under 30) as a very broad brush picture. I suspect that this is similar in most OECD countries with some a bit worse and some better. And for every death there is the inevitable people left behind some of who are permanently damaged by the event and self guilt in particular. Suicides are often linked to drugs and alcohol as well. Sounds very much like the road toll to me.

For the road toll we have a dedicated police force, legislated technology checks (WOF), billions spent on road “black spots” advertising campaigns etc. And for suicide we do have some programs in place and a lot of money is spent on mental health (the health area that suicide crops up in). But to cure it all we apparently have to do is be nice to our neighbours and make sure they are ok, or so it seems from the disaster example.

So there are suicide “victims” who exercise informed free will to end their lives for whatever reason and I don’t think we should be trying to prevent or “cure” these people but for a number of others and I am prepared to suggest the majority it is a very permanent solution to some short term problems.

Sadly Christchurch’s statistics are returning to the pre quake levels as presumably the city returns to some form of normal. Apart from the opportunity to build a truly stunning new city a lack of suicide is another outcome from the quake I am sure they would be happy to hang onto.