So who’s to blame, Bebo or the Daily Express? I’ve been exchanging a few e-mails with CAMHS clinicians in South Wales, and I’ve received a couple of interesting stories.
First off, I’ve received some anecdotes that certain journalists have been going around the Bridgend area offering teenagers money if they’ll tell the journalist about their suicidal ideation. Good to hear that the gentlemen of the press are adhering to their usual high ethical standards.
It also sounds like the media aren’t the only ones adding fuel to the hysteria. One of the CAMHS teams in South Wales received a frantic phone call from a local school saying that one of their pupils was about to commit suicide, and demanding that CAMHS come round right now and section the child. The CAMHS team dispatched a nurse to drive round to the school and find out what the hell was going on. The nurse was ushered into a room by a teacher, where a terrified-looking child was sat. The teacher pointed furiously at the child and said, “This is the kid that needs to be sectioned,” before leaving the nurse alone with the child.
The nurse sat down with the kid and asked him what was going on. He replied, “People were talking all about these suicide websites, so I was curious and decided to have a look at them. Next thing I know there’s a teacher screaming at me and my parents have been called.”
Putting aside sensationalist journalists and panicking teachers, is there actually such a thing as a “suicide cluster”? Can people be influenced by each other to take their own lives?
There’s always been anecdotal reports of suicide clusters (also known as “suicide contagion”) in which suicides have been claimed to be grouped together in time and space. There’s also been attempts to research the phenomenon - to find out whether the clusters really exist, or whether they’re no more than the usual rate of suicides being given undue attention by communities or the media. As far as I can gather, the results of this research seems to have generally been pretty inconclusive.
Personally I would argue that it’s self-evidently ridiculous that a happy, well-adjusted teenager would decide to hang themselves just because of something they saw on Bebo or on the TV news. That couldn’t happen.
On the other hand, is it possible that a teenager who was already having mood problems, difficulties at home or at school, had already been having suicidal thoughts…might that teenager then read a tribute page on Facebook to a fellow teenager in the area who had hung themselves, or watch it on the news…and if they then happen to have had a few beers or whatever chemicals happen to be on sale on the streets of Bridgend…might they then be prompted to carry out an impulsive act…?
….maybe.
Discuss.
10 comments
February 23, 2008 at 7:34 pm
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February 23, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Mr Ian
Having not read any research or worked in this particular specialist area or with adolescents - I will give my obviously valid thoughts….
suicide clusters - the mere name of it conjours up ideas of the ‘lunar theory’ of lunacy. Tho 17 does seem a lot in one year.
However, a quick peek at the table (15-29yo suicide rates) on the linked page shows that, yes, there is a spike (8 over the average - c. 150% increase) in the last year just in Brigend; but overall, suicide in Wales as a whole has dropped more than significantly - from 63 in 2004 - to 11 in 2006.
I guess time to move the North Wales specialists all down South and continue the good work.
February 23, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Disillusioned
I’m sure the media interest in the area hasn’t helped youngsters who may have been feeling vulnerable. I doubt there is one single answer to this though. there’s the issue of whether the number is statistically significant; the fact that suicide is being talked about generally (I suspect it is a topic of conversation amongst youngsters in the area) which might bring the possibility into the minds of some; a “what if” mentality; personal issues - there are just so many ifs, buts, maybes and whatevers. Blaming one factor to the exclusion of all others is, however, narrow minded and I suspect unhelpful.
February 23, 2008 at 2:40 pm
accident and emergency charge nurse
“a teenager who was already having mood problems, difficulties at home, or at school”.
Z - you mean you have met a teenager that doesn’t fit this description ;o)
Mr Ian suicide rates are fairly consistent, although they seem to have fallen recently - of course, a suicide verdict can only be returned if irrecovable intent is proved (so it is not easy to arrive at an unequivocal number).
http:www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1092
A reduction in the rate of suicide (by 20% by 2010) was one of the few explicit mental health “targets” set by NuLab - obviously some of the teenagers in Bridgend have not been keeping up to date with all of the diktats imposed by the DoH mandarins ?
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/.....wsAreaID=2
February 23, 2008 at 7:35 pm
jmbarlow
I’ve been following this on my blog as well, from the perspective of debunking the Social Networking connections.
One can see the original “cluster” of seven was largely an invention of the media, given that the deaths occurred over a 17 month period and over a wide geographical area (The county of Bridgend - popn 130,000 - rather than the town of Bridgend - popn 40,000).
http://www.jamesbarlow.co.uk/bebo-death-cult
February 23, 2008 at 8:38 pm
zarathustra
Cheers for that bit of number-crunching James. I’d heard suggestions that the “pattern” wasn’t necessarily much above what one would expect for the normal suicide rates, but your post is the first bit of confirmation I’ve seen for it.
February 23, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Mandy Lifeboats Adrift
I’m not too hot with statistics and when talking to a friend the other night we did discuss whether or not 17 young suicides within the timescale was not much different to what is going on elsewhere in the UK. But it all sounds so clinical and unemotional and okay stats count for something…but I am never sure exactly what for.
If 17 suicides are seen as a ‘norm’ (as in reflected across the UK), I would say things are very grim. 1 life lost, through despair , mental illness, disaffection (whatever combinations of and whatever the new terms for it are) is 1 too many. More so in young people who should have some kind of hope for themselves..even if they have no hope (and justifiably, in my view) in those who came before them and hold the balances of power, now.