Trying to help others

Hi Erica,

Regarding your project on Teen Suicides… I have some ideas that can give you a start.

First, I suggest by looking at some government data. Here is some data from Statistics Canada:
http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/hlth66a-eng.htm

Now the first thing you should notice is that by focusing on *Teen* suicide, you’re only looking at a small part of the overall issue of suicide. Teens are NOT the group with the biggest suicide problem… but it is perhaps the most *publicized* problem. But then the media regularly distorts reality.

No… the group with the biggest suicide problem are people in their 40s to early 50s.

And 75% of those are men.

Now why is that?

You might want to research the effect divorce and job loss has on men.

You might also want to research how the legal system is downright hostile towards men and in some quarters, treats them like walking wallets.

You might also want to research the negative effects of VAWA legislation… which basically says in legal terms that women are important and men aren’t.

You may also want to look at how men are portrayed as being stupid in the media.

Now women on the other hand… I suspect that women commit suicide for entirely different reasons.

I suggest reading this report… but read it carefully:
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2002002/article/6349-eng.pdf

And I say read it carefully because what they call a “suicide attempt” is any instance of Self-Inflicted injury that the person went to the hospital to get treatment for. So if I cut myself deliberately and then went to the hospital, it would be considered a “suicide attempt” even if the cut was done in such a way that there would be no chance of death. And I know this because I read the full report.

Be careful and read the fine print on many studies because some of them are seriously skewed to serve an agenda.

You may want to look at all the little ways that media like garbage magazines like Cosmo play on women’s insecurities.

And finally, have a look at this:
http://fathersforlife.org/health/cansuic.htm

Lots of good analysis in that link… and you may want to further investigate the higher rates of suicide in in the Native population… and tied in with that, you may want to compare it with substance abuse and compare that to ‘dry’ native communities.

Ultimately you need to answer the question “Why do people lose the will to live?”

You should have plenty now to answer that question…