On Family Day we received social media messages from readers about an “incident” occurring at the London Drugs at Garibaldi Village mall. Squamish RCMP were at the scene, crime tape was up and blood was visible.
I emailed our local RCMP contacts for information and then posted on The Chief’s Facebook page that we knew something had happened, but were waiting for official word of the details.
It turned out it was an attempted suicide in the drugstore washroom. The person was flown to a hospital in the city.
Media, as a rule, do not cover suicides or attempted suicides.
Research shows that news reports of suicide can incite copy-cats, and obviously no one wants that to happen.
A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry Journal in 2014 found there were certain factors of a news story that can contribute more heavily to copy-cat suicides in youth, namely if the story is on the front page, a description of the method of suicide is included, there’s a photo of the deceased or the word suicide figures in the headline.
Clearly, the topic needs to be handled with care, but if we never report on suicide at what point are we ignoring the giant proverbial elephant in the room?
At what point are we hiding a cultural problem?
In 2013, the North Shore News, a sister paper to The Chief, went against media convention and published a powerful two-part series on the relatively large number of people who ended their lives off the Lions Gate Bridge. Author of The bridge’s long shadow, Jane Seyd, told me recently that the decision to cover the suicides came down to the fact that the news team felt it was in the public interest to alert readers to the number of deaths and that something could be done to help reduce them.
The series makes clear, to me at least, that there can be coverage of suicide that is responsible and for the good of society. It is just making sure we at The Chief get the balance right because lives depend on it.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, seek help. Call 911, go to the Squamish emergency department, call the Crisis Centre at 604-872-3311 or 1-800-SUICIDE, which is B.C.-wide. Youth can call the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868 to speak to a supportive counsellor.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
