What’s the best way to reduce the number of suicides? Before
answering that question, we first need to know who’s committing
suicide, and how.
That’s the philosophy behind the Profile of Suicide Injury Report, a
celebrated and ground-breaking approach to suicide prevention in Nova
Scotia.
There’s only one problem: the government hasn’t released the
report.
“It’s a report that looks at rates of suicide provincially by age
and gender, then it looks at socioeconomic indicators like income,
rural/urban status,” explains Peter Nestman, author of the report and
interim director of the Population Health Research Unit at Dalhousie
University. “We also look at the means of suicide—what types of
methods they’re using. And then we’re looking at previous health care
utilization—so how many of them had family physicians
beforehand.”
With that information in hand, society can better decide how to
direct resources, create strategies for intervention and reduce the
opportunities and means for suicide.
“We came up with a draft report, and it was, I guess,
controversial,” continues Nestman. “[They] asked me to provide some
analysis of the statistics and so forth, and so I did that, and the
government wanted some of that stuff out, so I took that out. And so we
created a profile report at the end of the fall, and it was getting
delayed and delayed and now the report is totally completed, but it’s
just been sitting with government. I don’t know what they’re doing with
it.”
After going through 17 draft copies, the report was completed and
printed in April, acknowledges Julian Young, coordinator for injury
prevention and control with the provincial Department of Health
Promotion and Protection.
“We recognize that this data is incredibly valuable and we want
people to have it in their hands,” says Young.
Still, Young is conducting months of behind-the-scenes message
management before making the report public. He mentions meeting with
mental health professionals in the district health authorities.
Young also wants to spend several weeks meeting individually with
media representatives before releasing the report. “As you know, the
media are very busy right now covering a provincial election, so that’s
a challenge to get their time.”
Young’s worry is “contagion”—that media coverage of suicides will
inspire the possibly suicidal to commit the act. As an example, he
mentions firearm deaths, the leading means of suicide. “The last thing
we want someone to do irresponsibly is to report, ‘Oh, the leading way
to die by suicide is gun,’ because right away you’ve just told people
that that’s the most lethal way to die by suicide.”
“That’s bullshit,” says Antoon Leenaars, a world-renowned expert in
suicide prevention and past president of both the Canadian Association
for Suicide Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology.
“You want people to know that guns are dangerous. You want families
of suicidal people to know that if you make sure that if you control
the firearms that you will have a decrease in suicides. I would want
you to write that these things are lethal, and people need to take care
of the guns and make sure that if you have a suicidal person in the
home to remove that gun. Environmental control with suicidal people
works. Controlling them—people control—doesn’t.
“You tell people about the swine flu, or about SARS—what might
cause SARS to spread or not. It’s no different. It’s a public health
problem.”
As Leenaars sees it, government officials in Canada are reluctant to
discuss suicide openly for a variety of personal, religious and
political considerations that shouldn’t play a role in public health
policy.
But Young denies there is a political dimension to the delay in
publishing the report. “We’re getting to the point where we’re ready to
release it,” he says.
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This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.
I’d like to know what percentage of suicides are directly related to legal, Dr prescribed so-called-safe Big Pharm meds. No doubt that’s something they want to suppress…
Good, bold story. Not often do you see a sub-head that acknowledges government’s need to spin negative news. This is very self-aware, provocative journalism.
I’d kill myself too if my arm mysteriously disappeared.
not surprised that the report would be repressed…. Workers Comp would not want to take a hit on stress claims or claims from family and widows who want answers to why their firefighter spouse killed themselves.
check out web site firefighterveteran.com where we are trying to educate and inform first responders in Canada and the United States about stress post traumatic stress and suicides in the fire service. Check out the comments by lt. gov of ontario on the front page of the site and link to the west coast post trauma people out of san francisco…..F.I.R.S.T. S.T.E.P. H.O.P.E.
read about the suicide of Calgary Fire Department firefighterveteran Rod Spycher in the e newsletter section of the web site.
H.O.T. Hazardous Overload of Thought
W.E.T. Wasted Emotional Thoughts
A.I.R. Accept Individual Responsability
Reduce the Emotional Back Pressure of Events that are stressfull….these are some of the firefighter veteran key phrases we use to do the outreach and reduce the stress in our front lines.
comments to firefighterveteran@hotmail.com
Shannon H. Pennington ptsd firefighter
26 year Career Union Fire Fighter
EX I.A.F.F.
I wonder if the researchers checked out how many suicides are the direct result of this province’s inadequate social assistance programs.
Not enough money means “food insecurity” (a politically muted way to say Nova Scotians are going hungry) which leads to depression and desperation, which leads to suicide.
Governments are always trying to get off the hook. Saying that depression is a disease is part of the lie. What about people who kill themselves because of student loan debts, or serious medical problems, etc.,etc.. Some would prefer to die rather than suffer at the hands of bullying politicians.
Having attended the suicidal conference and participated in several discussions in Halifax I can confidently state that ‘they’ didnot include any of my truthful commentary and facts how pills for profit is what is killing people more than any one symptoms of depression or grieving or trauma or desperation or …. these so called researchers are delaying to figure out a way to bend you over without you knowing about it…. The minister, deputy minister, Dalhousie University and the College of Physicians and CMHA are hiding perps for pills so that they are not outed for using vulnerable people who are already labelled and deemed not credible by society for research without consent and mums the word before the big merge with Alberta Medicine/Health system.
Have no doubt we have doctors harming people for profit and ego in this province……
Tidbit from conference..the stats revealed in a recent publication in NS paid by NS govt, stated more suicides than not happen within a week of their last psych doctor…they glossed over it real fast…I was paying attention….. there is your truth…….stop ignoring the pink elephant in the bathroom………scary shite I say….