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https://www.lifeline.org.au/about-lifeline/lifeline-information/statistics-on-suicide-in-australia
Credibale source. , as they work in the community and are up to date with things in the community

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 Teen suicide is on the rise and this is why. 

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 Teen suicide is on the rise and this is why. 

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Newspaper article and credible source don't usually go hand-in-hand. Despite this, I would consider this to be credible as it is wrote by a Professor of Sociology, therefore the facts are relevant. However, I would also state be careful of sensationalised terminology and images from the media's input. When I used this in my essay I didn't use it for the information, I used it for the media's association. Very evident in the section on suicide and depression, using an image of a little boy head down and needs to chest.

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Every 40 seconds, another human life is taken by suicide, according to World Health Organization data.

In Canada, a new report reveals that young people between the ages of 15 and 19, who are struggling with mental illness and addiction, have the highest rates of suicide attempts. Middle-aged men are also at high risk, as are children and youth in First Nations communities who live with the legacy of trauma perpetuated by colonization and the residential school system.

World Suicide Prevention Day this Sunday provokes us to pay attention. Suicide is a silent epidemic that ruins lives and devastates families and communities. As a researcher, I have been examining and researching the factors that contribute to the blossoming of human potential, and the factors that undermine its full realization, for close to two decades. Suicide is the ultimate subversion of human potential.

Why are so many teenagers taking their own life? One factor is what I call "toxic socialization" - a process of physical or emotional childhood and adolescent abuse. Those who grow up in toxic environments are up to 12 times more likely to experience addiction, depression and to try to commit suicide.

Neurological damage

Remarkably, more than 90 per cent of people who succeed at suicide have been diagnosed with depression or some other mental disorder. If we want to understand why people commit suicide, we have to understand what makes them depressed.

Like suicide, depression is complicated and caused by many factors. One important contributing factor is childhood and adolescent abuse in a "toxic socialization" process.

Socialization is the process where we are trained - by parents, teachers, priests and others - to be citizens of our societies. Toxic socialization is when this process is characterized by neglect or ongoing physical and emotional abuse. The violence of a toxic socialization process is typically justified as beneficial in some way to the process. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is the prototypical justification.

(Shutterstock)

Agents of socialization hit, scream, intimidate, threaten, shame and exclude because they feel that violence - such as spanking - turns out a better adult product.

But it doesn't, at all. Toxic socialization - including corporal punishment, emotional abuse and the childhood trauma that is associated with it - contributes to negative behaviours. Children who are exposed to maltreatment, violence in the community or marital violence in families struggle with many forms of mental disability, including anxiety, alcohol dependence, eating disorders, personality disorders and depression.

Why does the violence of a toxic socialization process contribute to depression and suicide? That's a complicated question to sort out, but it's certainly linked to the neurobiological and endocrine damage that results from chronic exposure to the stress of violent environments, especially during the critical early years of childhood and adolescence.

The impact is made worse when perpetrators are people who are supposed to protect and nurture, in environments that are supposed to feel safe and secure.

What about our children?

A staggering one in three Canadians has experienced abuse before the age of 15, according to a 2016 report from the Chief Public Health Officer: A Focus on Family Violence in Canada. In 2014, 131 Canadians also died at the hands of a family member, and there were 133,920 reported victims of dating or family violence.

How do you reduce the risk of depression, mental illness and suicide? The first step is to put an end to this toxic socialization. We have to stop using violent methods such as spanking, and emotionally abusive methods such as shaming, to "teach" our lessons and control a child's behaviour. In order to take this step we will, as a society, have to stop justifying abuse in any form.

There is no evidence to support the notion that violence in the socialization process contributes to strong, healthy, well-adjusted adults. In fact, the evidence points in the opposite direction, that toxic socialization damages us and costs us as a society. One research team has estimated the burden of child maltreatment in the U.S. alone at over half a trillion dollars per year.

It's simply not the case that if we "spare the rod" we "spoil the child." On the contrary, if we want our children to be healthy and well-adjusted, and if we want to save this planet trillions of dollars, we should immediately halt all forms of violence against them.

What about me?

If you are a victim of a toxic socialization process, what can you do to heal yourself?

The first step is to stop telling yourself that violence against you is OK. Violence you experience does not make you a better or stronger person. It damages you. Instead, end your exposure to all forms of violence.

This can be a challenge if you find yourself trapped in an abusive marriage. Organizations such as Stop Abuse in Families (S.A.I.F) in Alberta can help.

Ending your exposure to violence can be a challenge when ending it means ending toxic family relationships that may have endured for decades. Even as adults, we can find it difficult to draw boundaries around abusive parents and siblings. We fear the loss of these relationships, long for the love and support they are supposed to provide and cling even when they cause us serious harm.

The next step is to get treatment. A therapist can help you examine the relationships in your life for evidence of toxic socialization. They should be willing to work with you to help you understand the damage these relationships cause. They should be willing to help you heal the trauma involved.

Mental health crisis

The decision to commit suicide is complicated, but enduring toxic socialization is a significant factor. On the occasion of World Suicide Prevention day, let us be clear that violence perpetrated against children in the name of training them to be members of society is wrong.

If we are going to make any progress against the growing mental health crisis and suicide epidemic in Canada and globally, then we need to change how we raise, educate and socialize our children.

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Teen suicide is on the rise and this is why

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Every 40 seconds, another human life is taken by suicide, according to World Health Organization data. In Canada, a new report reveals that young people between the ages of 15 and 19, who are struggling with mental illness and addiction, have the highest rates of suicide attempts.

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The cyberbullying solution Australia needs to see before another life is lost

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The cyberbullying solution Australia needs to see before another life is lost

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Hey everyone, sorry these two media articles I'm posting now are on the reference list; however, I posted them on the padlet yesterday but for some reason they didn't get uploaded. Basically, they talk about how youth suicide is at a ten year high and paint a theoretical picture with images on here which I believe is a fundamental aspect of what is associated with moral panic. I feel these articles also demonstrate quite well how the moral panic is from the grassroot strain. My interpretation is the panic is created by the public and the media jump on board and you can see this when parents panic of cyberbullying. therefore, media jump on board and correlate it with the suicide that's currently at an all time high. However, yes, this is not actually a credible source.

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Solving the cyberbullying crisis in Australia isn't for the faint-hearted, but the time has come for drastic action.

With one in five Australian children now victims of online abuse, it's clear the problem is escalating - and the consequences can be deadly.

An average of eight young Australians are taking their lives each week, a 10-year high.

That's 412 each year; almost half the population of an average school wiped out by something completely preventable.

I first became aware of Australia's unbelievably high youth suicide rate 18 months ago when my son Philip, 13, started suffering from mental health issues. This culminated in a serious attempt on his life in January, though there had been multiple attempts throughout the previous year.

My son has never been seriously cyberbullied, but due to his underlying mental health issues I shudder to think what might happen if that were the case. There's no way he'd cope.

It's true to say that not all victims of cyberbullying will take their own lives.

Cyberbullying and bullying are what are known as 'triggers' - but sadly, when there is an undiagnosed mental health issue these 'triggers' can be enough to tip a child over the edge.

Some parents aren't even aware of there being any issues at all in their child's life until tragedy strikes.
Read more: The cyberbullying video people can't stop watching
Cyberbullying has become a major trigger when it comes to youth suicide, but it's one we can do something about if we work together and stop using policies as tools for political gain.

Any solutions to this issue will only work if we all band together. That includes Federal and State education and health departments, individual schools, law enforcement agencies, medical professionals and parents.

Suffice to say, there's a lot to be done, but as famed philosopher Lao Tzu wisely said, 'The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step'.

So, let's begin with step one: Comprehensive reform of mental health services in Australia.

There are currently 31 separate phone and online mental health services in Australia, many of which are struggling to answer calls due to the overwhelming number of Australians suffering mental health issues.

What we need is one single mental health service that operates similar to Triple Zero (000) to triage each call.

Currently Australians in crisis can choose to contact Lifeline, Beyond Blue, Kids Helpline, the Suicide Call Back Service, SANE Australia, Blue Knot, Mi Networks Australia, 1800RESPECT, Parentline, Mensline Helpline Australia (if they are male), Wesley Mission, Uniting, The Butterfly Foundation, PANDA (if they are a teenager with a child and suffering pre- or post-natal depression), the Veterans and Veterans Family Counselling Service (if they are the child of a veteran) or the Salvo Care Line.

Multiple regional services have not been included on this list.

Or they can visit the following websites: Suicide Prevention Australia, Reach Out, Gotcha4Life, HeadSpace, the Mindshift Foundation, Orygen Youth Health, the Black Dog Institute, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, Head to Health, the National Centre Against Bullying, QLife, Way Ahead, R U OK, Health Direct or Wings of Hope.

That means if a child is in crisis from cyberbullying, but has enough logical thought left to reach out for help before hurting themselves, they have to decide which of the 31 national services they'll contact.

You could argue Google is currently operating a mental health triage service for the majority of young Australians, which is just not good enough.

Once a person in crisis does find a number to call, they then have to hope the chosen service answers them in a timely fashion - which, with resources stretched between so many services, can be hit and miss.

That is way too many points of failure for comfort when it comes to our precious children.

I learned just how stretched mental health services are in Australia when my son Philip commented that despite several late night and early morning attempts to contact some of them, his calls often went unanswered.

In cases when the calls were answered, he was kept on hold for such a long period he tended to hang up.

On a handful of occasions, Philip was successfully connected and the service was invaluable.

However, the thought of my son not getting through to a mental health service in his moments of need is terrifying.

I decided to try calling the services most likely to be contacted by children and teens - Lifeline, Beyond Blue, Kids Helpline and the Suicide Call Back Service - to find out how long it would take to receive an answer.

It wasn't my intention to waste their time or resources or put anyone in danger by tying up a phone line. I just needed to find out if the system is working.

I made the calls on a Tuesday between 10.40pm and 11.20pm. Here are the results:

Lifeline kept me on hold for nine minutes and 45 seconds.

Beyond Blue answered relatively quickly, at two minutes and nine seconds.

Kids Helpline was alarmingly slow, at 13 minutes and 19 seconds.

The Suicide Call Back Service was more reasonable, at four minutes and 17 seconds.

Alan Woodward, Executive Director of Lifeline Australia, regretted how long it took for my call to be answered.

"Around half of the calls are answered within 90 seconds," he told 9Honey.

"Of course we'd always like to answer every call as it comes in but we do answer each day more than 2,600 calls and between our chat service and our phone service there are over one million contacts a year.

"Lifeline is the highest volume mental health service in Australia. We are there to provide a service for anyone about any issue they are facing. There are no restrictions to using our service."

It should be noted that 80 per cent of Lifeline's funding comes from donations and fundraising activities, with some state and federal government funding, and 85 per cent of its staff, including phone counsellors, are volunteers.

Georgie Harmon, CEO of Beyond Blue, said the service tries hard to keep their wait times low and is funded entirely through donations, not government funding.

The organisation was initially fully government funded, however, and has received $46 million of federal funding aimed at expanding mental health services in Australia.

"Like all other helplines, we work hard to keep our wait times low because we know that when someone has taken the first step to get support, or is at high risk, every minute counts," Harmon told 9Honey.

"On average, our wait times are one minute and 10 seconds and calls are answered by a network of about 100 mental health professionals.

"Our service is not a long-term or specialist counselling service. Our service provides brief counselling, advice and information to callers and also refers people to specialist services."

Tony Fitzgerald from Kids Helpline explained that since recent campaigns highlighting the dangers of cyberbullying - like 9Honey's own ' Real Examples of Cyberbullying' viral video - calls to the centre have increased.

As a result, they are having trouble keeping up. The helpline does more than just offer a quick phone chat to children in crisis; they also work with children long-term to ensure they get all the support they need.

"Over the last particularly couple of months with the issue of cyberbullying being very prominent in the media and the community, we've seen a significant increase in demand for our phone service, and that's further impacted our ability to respond," Fitzgerald said.

It's fantastic that child victims of cyberbullying are reaching out for help, but it's alarming to think their call may go unanswered, or that they may hang up after being kept on hold for too long.

Fitzgerald said they, too, need further funding and ideally would love to hire at least 20 more mental health professionals to help answer calls.

Kids Helpline is 78 per cent funded through donations and fundraising activities, with the remainder coming from corporate support and government grants. Phone staff are paid.

Samantha Fredricks from the Suicide Call Back Service said while the name of the organisation is often misunderstood, it is intended to reflect that once a call is answered, the person is offered a further six free sessions with the same counsellor who calls back at a pre-agreed time.

"The funding is federal funding for the Suicide Call Back Service," she said.

"Part of the requirement was that we not only work with people one-on-one when they call, but then we have these six call back sessions that are available. It's quite unique."

Each of these services does amazing work and save countless lives, each day. Many are staffed by volunteers. Most could use more funding and resources.

The Federal Government has attempted to establish a one-stop-shop for mental health services by launching the Head to Health hub in October 2017. That is separate from their cyberbullying one-stop-shop which is the Office of the eSafety Commissioner website.

The Head to Health hub offers assistance to those in crisis via Triple Zero (000) and links to the Lifeline hotline, Lifeline online chat, the Kids Helpline website, Kids Helpline chat as well as Beyond Blue.

That means a child in crisis is being presented with several different directions to take, not to mention the fact the Head to Health hub is relatively new and unknown.

Then the Office of the eSafety Commissioner website, also referred to as a 'hub' which, despite the confusing name, attempts to help children who are victims of cyberbullying.

In response to our request for information about the site, and the potential confusion presented by the multiple mental health services in Australia, a spokesperson for the Office of the Safety Commissioner said, "We are fortunate in Australia to have a number of world-leading mental health and online safety organisations and it's important to know what services are available and how to access them.

"The eSafety Office's new online wellbeing hub - an initiative of the eSafety and Mental Health Steering Group - was established to help bring these resources together to make it easier for Australians to get the information and support they need.

"For Australians in need of psychological support, help with online issues, and support with bullying there are a range of mental health services, online safety and anti-bullying organisations that can assist: www.esafety.gov.au/online-wellbeing-hub."

In response to our suggestion those in crisis might benefit from less confusion in the mental health services space, a spokesperson from the Australian Government Department of Health said, "All national Government funded telephone lines take call demand and response times seriously and continue to work to reduce these times to a minimum.

"While a national call line is suggested from time to time, the current call lines target particular client groups and situations (eg. Kids helpline) to ensure the best and most appropriate care.

"In addition, Head to Health launched by Minister Hunt in October 2017, enables the Australian community to access evidence-based information, advice and digital mental health treatment options (and non-digital options if considered more appropriate to need)."

In my opinion, mental health services in Australia, while well-intentioned, are a patchy, confusing, political mess.

If there was an established mental health triage service, similar to Triple Zero (000), resources used by each organisation to promote their own service could be pooled together to promote one, single number.

There would be no confusion as to which service our children should contact for help, and no time lost in searching for a service that sounds like it meets their needs.

Then, when our children do call, they will be answered and offered immediate assistance, their cries for help treated with the seriousness they deserve.

A service like this would give our kids the best chance of being saved - and promotion of the service would send a very clear message to all of our children and to all Australians.

That they are valued

That they are important.

That their lives matter.

And that cyberbullying-triggered suicide is a serious issue requiring a serious solution.
Sign the petition to help stop cyberbullying at You can contact Jo Abi at jabi@nine.com.au Facebook.com/Wordsareweaponsau.

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The cyberbullying solution Australia needs before another life is lost

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Solving the cyberbullying crisis in Australia isn't for the faint-hearted, but the time has come for drastic action. With one in five Australian children now victims of online abuse, it's clear the problem is escalating - and the consequences can be deadly. An average of eight young Australians are taking their lives each week, a 10-year high.

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Updated, alphabetized, formatted. Most of what we can get

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Reporting of Suicide in the Australian Media

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Reporting of Suicide in the Australian Media

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Pirkis et al., (2002) is another a credible source for this assignment. However, this article is a little different as it has empirical evidence in its reporting. Nevertheless, this article adequately informs you on the issue of media and media reporting around youth suicide

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Suicide methods in children and adolescents

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Suicide methods in children and adolescents

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Kolves & De Leo (2017) is a academic article, credible for the use of this essay. However, don't get to off topic with this article. I only used a small section which talked about the terminology media use when reporting on youth suicide. Apart from that, this isn't really relevant towards the assignment, unless you wanted to talk about methods.

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Suicide methods in children and adolescents

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There are notable differences in suicide methods between countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse and describe suicide methods in children and adolescents aged 10-19 years in different...

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 'Moral panic’ and moral language in the media

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 'Moral panic’ and moral language in the media

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Hunt (1997) is a credible source as it is peer reviewed. This article provides informative in the area of moral panic and also its relationship to the media and the media's language. Despite the article being an older one, the information is still adequate and relevant for basic concept and understand of moral panics and its correlation with media

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'Moral Panic' and Moral Language in the Media on JSTOR

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This article provides a comprehensive survey of the use of the term 'moral panic' from its coinage in 1972 until the present day. It traces the evolutio...

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Moral Panics: The Social Construct of Deviance. 

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Moral Panics: The Social Construct of Deviance. 

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Goode & Ben-Yehuda (2009) is a creditable source and is useful depending on the manner of your argument in the essay. Nice section on some strains of moral panic, one of which I will briefly touch on in my essay. The literature talks about 3 origins of moral panic, such as the "elite engineered", the "grassroots model" and the "Interest-groups theory". Once again, it really depends upon your argument for your essay on the approach taken.

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Credible source. Article about the global perception of youth and their vulnerabilities.

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More often than not, youth come to our attention as a result of their association with crisis-be it a crisis of unemployment, of involvement in violence, or susceptibility to early parenthood or sexually transmitted infections and disease. I would like to talk about this. I do not wish to challenge the idea that young people are vulnerable to risks and even producing risks to themselves and their local contexts. However, I would like to take a second look at the way that youth, risk, and vulnerability are often balled up together in a way that sees young people as the problem (or the solution)-rather than participants in societies and in a global community that are fraught with many problems.

First, who are the youth? The short answer is that it really depends. There are some important physical, cognitive, and psychosocial developments that demarcate the period of the life course that we call adolescence, which takes place roughly between the ages of 13 and 19. "Youth" is more of a social age than a developmental period. It is that transition period between the dependency of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood. This social phase might be longer or shorter depending on the context. That said, definitions are often needed (for policy for example). The UN uses the ages between 15 and 24 as a range in which many young people are socially considered "youth." These are guidelines. Young people may or may not fit into them based upon their gendered and socio-economic transitions in particular societies.

So what is it that makes young people vulnerable to harmful things like HIV/AIDS or participation in violence and conflict? One way to answer these questions is to think about what it means to be young-to experience rapid physical, sexual, social and emotional change. Adolescence is a time of identity formation. It is time when many people become sexually active, and take on more responsibilities. The flux and change in this period certainly increases young people's susceptibility to all kinds of risks. If we stop there, we have a very age and stage based view of risk that connects vulnerability to a condition of being not fully mature. This is only part of the story, however. While young people are developing within their bodies and their psychosocial engagement with their world, they are also attending and exiting education, going to work, and beginning families of their own. A look at these transitions demonstrates that while bodies and minds may undergo similar developments that induce a "base-line" vulnerability for nearly all young people, there are a number of interconnected contextual influences that affect youth vulnerabilities. Among the most important are impoverishment, inequality, and social exclusion. Around the world young people are seeing their choices limited by things like economic insecurity, technological change, political uprisings, conflict and climate change.

Poverty remains one of the gravest threats to young people's life chances in low and middle-income countries, and for a significant number of youth living in high-income countries. It manifests in a variety of ways. To name just one, food shortage has pervasive and long-lasting affects on well-being and life chances. Evidence from Young Lives a longitudinal, four-country study of childhood poverty demonstrates that food shortage at age 12 is associated with a range of impacts three years later. These include lower cognitive achievement and lower subjective well-being at age 15 ).

Young people also grow up in situations where vulnerabilities result from an unequal distribution of resources. For example, urban centers nearly always provide a greater quantity and diversity of goods, services, and opportunities than do rural areas. The extent of the disparity in developing countries can be quite significant. In Liberia, half of the high schools in the entire country are located within the greater capital city area of Monrovia. Even where education facilities do exist in rural areas, they are often located at a considerable distance from children's homes. The perceived and actual risks of travel may delay enrolment and restrict school participation for girls in particular, which in turn causes intermittent attendance and early departure.

Finally, a good deal of vulnerability emerges from the way in which groups of people are treated by the rest of society. Socially excluded minorities are more likely to endure unequal access to resources and opportunities because of who they are, or are perceived to be. The interconnection of social exclusion, inequality, and poverty tend to reinforce one another. So for example, vulnerability is compounded if a young person is a girl, who is from a minority ethnic group, and living in a rural area. Vulnerabilities that result from entrenched social marginalization and poverty extend over the life course of young people, their families and communities, and are transmitted across generations.

The constraints, opportunities, and the means by which youth negotiate transitions into greater responsibility and adulthood have much to tell us about the conditions of the local and global communities in which they live. Youth are vulnerable not just because they are young or undergoing rapid developmental transitions. Perhaps more fundamentally, they are vulnerable because they are people who live in an unequal world where the social values and institutions that permit opportunities and possibilities of all kinds are not available to everyone.

What does this mean for policy? It means a lot of things, but what I would like to stress is that the vulnerabilities that young people experience are in many respects, part and parcel of the vulnerabilities that are produced and reproduced in their communities, their nations, and our world. It seems that responding to the risks that young people experience and present means responding to pervasive and interconnected forces that sustain poverty, reproduce inequality, and maintain social exclusion. Addressing risks and vulnerabilities associated with youth means addressing the more systemic disparities and disadvantages that diminish their life chances on local and global scales.
Abby Hardgrove is Visiting Research Associate, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. This blog post was drawn from the Human Development Report Office 2014 Occasional Paper entitled: Youth Vulnerabilities in Life Course Transitions. The HDialogue blog is a platform for debate and discussion. Posts reflect the views of respective authors in their individual capacities and not the views of UNDP/HDRO.

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What's the Problem? Youth and Vulnerability in a Global Perspective

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More often than not, youth come to our attention as a result of their association with crisis-be it a crisis of unemployment, of involvement in violence, or susceptibility to early parenthood or sexually transmitted infections and disease. I would like to talk about this.

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Teen suicide is contagious and the problem may be worse than we thought.

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Teen suicide is contagious and the problem may be worse than we thought.

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Couldn't think of a better headline to create some fear amongst the public. However, once again, this is another prime example of a non credible source with non empirical evidence.

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Terry A. Ratzlaff for Newsweek

Lucrecia Sjoerdsma knew what to watch for: the lingering moodiness, the sudden disinterest in what once brought joy. But her daughter, Riley Winters, a ninth-grader at Discovery Canyon Campus High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was always smiling-the 15-year-old used whitening strips because she loved showing off her perfect teeth. "Her smile really matched her personality," Sjoerdsma says. A petite girl with brown hair that went just past her shoulders, Riley seemed to be a happy, goofy kid and a kind young woman who could sense when others were down and find a way to cheer them up. Riley liked hiking and rock climbing. She spoke of joining the military or becoming an archaeologist, a physical therapist or a dental hygienist. She had plenty of time to decide.

Even though her mother had no sense that Riley was having problems, she knew it was important to talk to her daughter about suicide, and so she did. Between 2013 and 2015, 29 kids in their county had killed themselves, many from just a handful of schools, including Riley's. There had been gunshot deaths, hangings and drug overdoses. And then there were those choking deaths the victims' parents insisted were accidental.

Riley knew of at least two of the kids who had killed themselves the previous winter: an older girl at school (they had mutual friends) and a boy in her Christian youth group. Such peripheral connections are all that seem to connect most of the kids in the area who had killed themselves, and school and county officials began to worry they were witnessing a copycat effect...until copycat became too weak a word. It was more like an outbreak, a plague spreading through school hallways.

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About a year after Sjoerdsma and her daughter last spoke about suicide, Riley was staying at her father's house one night when she downed a small bottle of whiskey, then sent out a series of troubling texts and Snapchat messages. "I'm sorry it had to be me," she wrote to one friend. Then she slipped on a blue Patagonia fleece and snuck out the basement window, carrying her father's gun.

When Riley's mother and friends saw the messages, they went looking for her at local parks, gas stations and friends' houses, all the while begging her via texts and calls to come home.

The next morning, they found her body in the woods behind her father's house. She'd shot herself in the head.
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Three days later, and two days before Riley's memorial service, another Discovery Canyon Campus student killed himself. Her daughter probably knew the boy, but they weren't close, Riley's mother says. Nine days later, yet another classmate committed suicide. He had been on the swim team with the boy who'd just killed himself. And that wasn't the end of it: Five students from the school of 1,180 died by suicide between late 2015 and summer 2016, a rate almost 49 times the yearly national average for kids their age.

It's not just at that one school. As of mid-October, the total for teen suicides this year in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, is 13, one short of the total for all of 2015. Neighboring Douglas County had a similar crisis a few years ago, and news of a classmate's suicide no longer fazes students in the area, kids say. "It's become almost commonplace," says Gracie Packard, a high school junior in Riley's district. "Because it doesn't happen once every four years. It happens four times in a month, sometimes."

The youngest person to die this year in El Paso County was 13. "[Even] for a job that's generally pretty tragic, it's disheartening," says Dr. Leon Kelly, the county's deputy chief medical examiner. "You feel powerless. You feel like, Another one?

"Another day, another kid. It's hard."

Death on Instagram

Sociologists have long said people who form bonds are less likely to kill themselves, but sometimes the opposite is true-studies now show that one person's suicidal behavior can spur another's, and one death can lead to more deaths.

Decades of research prove that a startling range of emotions and behaviors can be contagious-from moodiness to yawning. Young people are especially susceptible; they obsess over fads and fashion trends and copy illicit behaviors from peers, such as smoking, drinking or speeding. Or suicide. Using a statistical formula typically applied to tracking outbreaks of diseases, researchers at Columbia University and other institutions confirmed in 1990 that suicide is contagious and can be transmitted between people. Contagion spreads either directly, by knowing a suicide victim, or indirectly, by learning of a suicide through word-of-mouth or the media. Those same researchers found that people ages 15 to 19 are two to four times more prone to suicide contagion than people in other age groups. The way it spreads can be so similar to that of diseases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sometimes gone into a region to investigate spikes in suicides.

Analysts call those spikes suicide clusters-an unusually high number of people in an area kill themselves (or attempt to) in a short period of time. The clusters tend to happen where people socialize, such as schools, psychiatric hospitals or military units. Madelyn Gould, one of the analysts who made the contagion discovery, has said these clusters make up between 1 and 5 percent of teen suicides but are vitally important to understand because "they represent a class of suicides that may be particularly preventable." And a few consecutive suicides can devastate a community.

Another reason it is crucial to understand these clusters is that suicide is likely becoming more contagious, thanks in large part to social media. Analysts have long assumed that a suicide typically has a profound impact on six people, but that estimate is from the early 1970s and limited to close family members. Social networks (both online and in real life) are much bigger today, and soon-to-be-published research by Julie Cerel, president-elect of the American Association of Suicidology, shows that a suicide may now touch around 135 people, and about one-third of them experience a severe life disruption because of that suicide. She and her colleagues previously found, in 2015, that people who know a suicide victim are almost twice as likely to develop suicidal thoughts as the general population. The closer the relationship, the greater the risk; the younger the person exposed, the greater the risk.

Young people aren't the only ones facing a suicide problem; the national suicide rate across all demographics is at an almost 30-year high. But more than three times as many teens are killing themselves now than in the 1950s. Most of these suicides aren't copycats, but some areas across the country are suffering from the sort of contagion that has stricken Colorado Springs; the CDC investigated cases in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 2014 and Palo Alto, California, in 2016. Other clusters have likely gone undetected because it's often so difficult to make the connections between victims.

Suicide prevention advocates tend to blame television and newspaper coverage for inspiring copycats, but for teens, social media are a growing problem. Instagram pages for kids who kill themselves sometimes contain hundreds of comments. Many are about how beautiful or handsome the deceased were, how they can finally rest in peace and how there should be a party for them in heaven. Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, says the message seems to be that if you kill yourself, you'll not only end your suffering but also become the most popular kid in school. Teens sometimes have more than 1,000 Instagram followers, so kids far beyond one school or community can see digital shrines to dead friends. Moutier says those posts can seem as if they're romanticizing death.

Scholars are struggling to keep up with the evolving technology, and they say there's still a paucity of research on how suicidal thoughts spread through social media. "It makes these deaths no longer isolated," says Cerel, and kids "are exposed and perhaps profoundly affected by someone they might have never even met in person." Analysts say clusters could become harder to spot, because they typically occur in a specific area, but social networks for teens now spread far beyond a school, a neighborhood, even a city.

The Choking Game

It's hard to identify "patient zero" in the Colorado Springs suicide outbreak because kids today are so interconnected, and the families involved have kept many details private. Researchers also know that they can't limit their search to one group; the first suicide at one school may have been inspired by the death of a student at another. Other factors muddling the search: The coroner's office doesn't always track where the deceased went to school, and districts are hesitant to say how many teens they've lost to suicide, citing student privacy laws and fear of copycats.

One known precursor to the current wave of suicides was in 2011, when a Colorado Springs father found his 12-year-old son suspended from a bunk bed. The parents insist it was not a suicide and instead blame the "choking game," in which a person cuts off blood flow to the brain and then releases it in order to feel lightheaded or even high. The coroner's office ruled the cause of death "undetermined." In 2013, a 15-year-old from the same school district strangled himself, and his parents blamed the choking game. The number of teen suicides started picking up in the spring of 2015, when a Discovery Canyon Campus student shot herself. The next month, three local kids took their own lives. From June to November, there were five more suicides in the Colorado Springs area; in December, there was on average one teen suicide per week. The deaths surged again toward the end of the last school year, beginning with Riley's suicide.

Those tracking the situation are convinced it's a contagion, but they're unsure how it's spreading. That makes it all the more frightening and difficult to stop. "It's two years in a row we've dealt with the same sort of terrifying trend," says Kelly, the medical examiner.

Colorado's Child Fatality Prevention System, which investigated all youth suicides in the state from 2010 to 2014, identified risk factors, including family arguments, relationship breakups and physical or emotional abuse. Others blame regional factors, like the nearby Army and Air Force bases, as the children of people serving in the military are at elevated risk for suicidal thoughts. (A parent's deployment can lead to increased responsibilities at home for a kid or emotional problems because of the separation and possibility of a parent's death.) Some blame the high altitude, which researchers have linked to suicide.

Analysts also point out that young people don't always know how to get through stressful times. Adults tend to end their lives because of major life stressors, Kelly says, but for a kid, the breaking point is often less significant. "These risk factors line up like lights on the street," says Richard Lieberman, a mental health consultant for the Los Angeles County Office of Education. "For a kid to go from thinking about suicide to attempting suicide, all these lights have to turn green." One light might be a fight with a parent. Another might be a flunked test, a breakup, a peer's suicide. Kids might contemplate suicide for months, and then the final act is often on impulse, "if everything falls into place," says Scott Poland, a school crisis expert from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Poland and Lieberman are working with Discovery Canyon Campus and its district.

Riley didn't show any obvious signs of mental health problems, according to her mother, and wasn't in therapy or on medication. "Teachers even said, If you would have given me 200 names, hers would have been at the bottom of kids who would do this."

But Riley was having trouble in the classroom-she fooled around during class, and her grades suffered, which added pressure. "She kept saying she hated school; she just didn't want to be there," Sjoerdsma says. She also struggled with her parents' 2005 divorce. But even a few hours before her death, at a Christian youth group gathering she was dancing around and holding hands with friends, says Sjoerdsma, acting like "her normal self." In the car with family friends on the way to her father's house, Riley rolled down the window and stuck her hands outside. She liked to feel the cool mountain air on her palms. When she was dropped off, she told the people she was with that she'd see them tomorrow.

'Unhang' Yourself

A little more than a week after Riley's suicide, Brittni Darras, an English teacher at a different school in the area, posted on Facebook that she had learned of another student's attempted suicide during a parent-teacher conference. "As her mom sat across from me, we both had tears streaming down our faces," Darras wrote. "Feeling helpless, I asked if I could write my student a letter to be delivered to her at the hospital." The mother agreed. After the student received it, the mother emailed Darras to share what the girl had said: "How could somebody say such nice things about me? I didn't think anybody would miss me if I was gone."

Darras had lost a student to suicide a few years earlier. "It's something that, as a teacher, you never entirely recover from," she says. "Losing one in my teaching career was more than anybody should ever have to go through." When she heard how the girl in the hospital had reacted, Darras decided to write letters to the rest of her 130 students. It took her two months. Her students were thankful, and word of what she did spread; nearly 200,000 people have shared her Facebook post.

Darras is one of many people in the Colorado Springs area fighting to stop the suicides. The initiative Safe2Tell, which began as a pilot program in the city in the 1990s and expanded statewide after the Columbine High School killings in 1999, lets young people anonymously report threats by others. State police receive the reports and connect with local law enforcement and schools to intervene. Last school year, Safe2Tell received 5,821 tips, up 68 percent from the previous year. The largest category involved suicide threats. "For years, in all the work in suicide prevention, we've really focused on one thing, and that is seeking help if you need it," says Susan Payne, the initiative's executive director. "That meant putting it on the victim that's struggling to make a phone call or seek help." Her program encourages bystanders to look for warning signs in others and report them.

Daniel Brewster wants that too. On December 31, 2015, hours before he and his daughter Danielle, 17, a Discovery Canyon Campus student, planned to celebrate the new year, she hanged herself. Brewster later looked at his daughter's phone. "This is the part that kills me-I know she was texting other kids at the time and letting them know," he says. She wrote, "My feet are off the floor," and "Everything is getting hazy and dark." None of the kids intervened; one responded by suggesting she "unhang."

"Just having a meeting with [teens] and saying, 'OK, here are the signs; here's what you look for; here's what you need to do'-that's not enough," Brewster says. "It needs to be ingrained in these kids' heads, because they're our first line of defense." Of all the young people in Colorado who killed themselves from 2008 to 2012, more than a third had told someone of their plans, according to a state report.

Danielle's was one of at least three teen suicides in the Colorado Springs area in a three-week span. Then, six weeks later, Danielle's mother hanged herself in her daughter's bedroom. "They're supposed to be here," Brewster says, choking on the words. "We're supposed to be in this house together."

Some local students are starting their own prevention efforts. Gracie Packard was in the eighth grade when she set a date to kill herself. She had struggled with anxiety and depression since she was young and later practiced cutting. She couldn't sleep, her grades were slipping, and she was losing weight. She would cancel plans with friends and stopped dancing, once a passion of hers. Meanwhile, other kids around town, as well as one of her siblings, were killing themselves or attempting to. "It was pretty much all around you," she says. She recalls telling herself, "If things aren't better by this date, then you've tried your best, and you can end it."

Her friends sensed something was wrong. Days before she planned to die, they staged an intervention. "We're worried about you," they told her. Their concern, plus a suicide prevention nonprofit she stumbled upon called To Write Love on Her Arms, convinced her to ask her mom for help. "I was physically shaking. I could hardly breathe," she says. But "that 30 seconds of bravery in being willing to say out loud to somebody you trust that, 'Hey, I'm not OK,' it's going to be one of the scariest things you'll ever do, but it will be one of the best things you'll ever do." She soon started therapy. Now 17, Gracie shares her mental health story publicly and advocates for suicide prevention. An event she hosted in September drew 150 people.

City and school officials are also working to stem the rising death toll. Last spring, the El Paso County Public Health department hired a specialist to create a screening system to identify young people at risk.

But not all parents are willing to address the problem. Kelly, the medical examiner, says family members almost always request that his office cite a cause of death other than suicide, such as the choking game. "I've had relatives ask me if I would call it an autoerotic asphyxia because they didn't want to tell Grandpa that his grandson had committed suicide," he says. "That really speaks to what we as Americans think about mental illness." None of the obituaries for the Colorado Springs kids seem to mention suicide (a common omission everywhere), and it's unlikely that their memorial services included more than a vague reference.

Some worry that discussing suicide might inspire more kids to do it, but just because suicidal behavior can spread quickly doesn't mean it has to. Moutier, from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, says thinking suicide is contagious might give young people the impression that anyone can "catch" it, even a stable, happy kid. That's not true, she says.

Whether the parents of the deceased will admit it or not, suicide in most cases involves an underlying mental health condition. Researchers have found that if someone close to an adolescent dies by suicide, the adolescent's mental health history is a bigger predictor of future suicidal behavior than his or her relationship to the suicide victim.

El Paso County's most recent teen suicide was on September 19-a hanging on school grounds. Because teen suicides there tend to spike at the end of semesters-when students may feel as if they're losing whatever support they had at school, Kelly says-officials may not know until winter break if things are improving. Students aren't necessarily sending panicked glances around the classroom, wondering whom this plague will strike next. They have other things to worry about-exams, rehearsals, sports games, college applications. "When it first happens, that's all that is on everyone's mind," says Chloe Love, a junior at Discovery Canyon Campus, who does suicide prevention work. Then they move on. They have to. "Sometimes," she says, "the memories just hurt too much."

Sjoerdsma says she won't hide how Riley died. "I'm fully aware that my daughter committed suicide, and I don't know why." She has done social work, and her husband is a local middle school teacher; neither saw the signs. Since her daughter's death, she hasn't been sleeping well, and the spate of suicides makes the grieving process more difficult. At night, she often lies awake, thinking about how she and Riley used to say good night: "I love you here to heaven," Sjoerdsma would say. "I love you back to heaven," Riley would respond.

Sjoerdsma still says it every night. Only now, there's no one to say it back.

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Teen suicide is contagious, and the problem may be worse than we thought

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Terry A. Ratzlaff for Newsweek Lucrecia Sjoerdsma knew what to watch for: the lingering moodiness, the sudden disinterest in what once brought joy. But her daughter, Riley Winters, a ninth-grader at Discovery Canyon Campus High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was always smiling-the 15-year-old used whitening strips because she loved showing off her perfect teeth.

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Teen Suicide: 15 warning signs to watch for.

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Teen Suicide: 15 warning signs to watch for.

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Intriguing, yes. However, there is not empirical evidence to support their statements. Therefore, this is another prime example of a non credible source. Nicely linked to moral panic.

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Teen Suicide: 15 Warning Signs to Watch for

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Is Your Kid Not Sleeping? Joking About Death? Signs to Look Out For

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A social psychological approach to understanding moral panic

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A social psychological approach to understanding moral panic

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Pearce and Charman (2011) have provided the academic world with another creditable source with empirical evidence on moral panic and media; however, not in relation to young people and suicide.

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This is a creditable academic source which I found in the library, perfect for the assignment. Jewkes (2011) talks about media and the impact they can have on society. Talks about the media industry and the manner in which they publish.

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Thinking beyond moral panic. Risk, responsibility, and the politics of moralization

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Thinking beyond moral panic. Risk, responsibility, and the politics of moralization

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Heir (2008) is another creditable peer reviewed article, discussing moral panic and also the relationship to media.

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Garland (2008) is a peer reviewed article which discusses the concept of moral panic, providing examples and types of moral panic.

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The most deadly epidemic ravaging Australian schools isn't drugs

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The most deadly epidemic ravaging Australian schools isn't drugs

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A nice, non credible source from an online media outlet. Non credible again as it is not peer reviewed. Use to create moral panic.

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Youth Suicide: How can we offer hope to this generation?

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Youth Suicide: How can we offer hope to this generation?

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One more you may like for the creation of moral panic; however, this is again another non credible source as it has not been peer-reviewed.

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Mark is 11. He likes Minecraft and Lego. He also wants to end is life.

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Mark is 11. He likes Minecraft and Lego. He also wants to end is life.

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*
Again, another non credible online media article used to demonstrate moral panic and sensationalism.

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Georgie Gardener calls out Communications Minister over Australia's cyberbullying

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Georgie Gardener calls out Communications Minister over Australia's cyberbullying

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Another online newspaper article; however, also not a non credible source.

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Teen Suicide: A rising epidemic to confront

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Teen Suicide: A rising epidemic to confront

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This is a non credible source, as it comes from a media outlet. Use to demonstrate moral panic and sensationalism.

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Suicide Explained: The Australian Experience.

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Suicide Explained: The Australian Experience.

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Hassan, R. (1995). Suicide Explained: The Australian Experience. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press.

This is a credible source, released here in Australia by the Melbourne University Press. Despite being an older book (1995), it has a good section on the correlation between age and suicide.

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Bernman, A, L., Jobes, D, A., Silverman, M, M. (2006). Adolescent Suicide: Assessment and Intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

This is a book with some good direction into youth suicide, provided by the American Psychological Association; therefore, this book is a creditable source.

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Burns, R., & Crawford, C. (1999). School shootings, the media, and public fear: Ingredientsfor a moral panic. Crime, Law and Social Change, 32(2), 147-168.

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Burns, R., & Crawford, C. (1999). School shootings, the media, and public fear: Ingredientsfor a moral panic. Crime, Law and Social Change, 32(2), 147-168.

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This is a creditable source as it is a published peer reviewed article. Desipte having a large focus on school shooting in America, the article has an excelent ability to identify and explain moral panic.

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Nilan, P., Julian, R., & Germov, J. (2007) Australian Youth: Social and Cultural Issues. French Forrests, New South Whales: Pearson Education Australia.

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Nilan, P., Julian, R., & Germov, J. (2007) Australian Youth: Social and Cultural Issues. French Forrests, New South Whales: Pearson Education Australia.

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While this creditable source has already been touch on, I think it is benefical to further clarify on it helpfulness in writing my essay. Once reading reading this and the textbook "Youth and Society" you will have a very adequate understanding of moral panic its relationship with media. I'm not sure if this book is avalible online, or not but i have it in hard copy.
- James Finney

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White, R., Wyn, J., & Robards, B. (2017). Youth & society. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.

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White, R., Wyn, J., & Robards, B. (2017). Youth & society. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.

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The textbook for this unit is a creitable source which has adequatley informed myself on the topic of moral panic. Unlike other soucres, which ensure their use of an acadmeic tone to portray the topic, this book simlifies the meaning. Thus, allowing you to understand moral panic before you dive into the academic literature and journal articles. Additionally, for anyone having trouble understanding the term, have a look at TABLE 15.1 "Perceptions and interpretations of issues" I found this informing. Instead of thinking about the event driven examples they have used, I though of some relating to youth suicide. Let me know if you're stuggling with this book, I will help you the best I can.
- James Finney

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Myths and truths of youth suicide. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 14 April 2018, from https://youtu.be/o4iTzXREiZs

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Myths and truths of youth suicide. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 14 April 2018, from https://youtu.be/o4iTzXREiZs

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Non credible source. Focuses on some of the myths around suicide published on 27 Aug 2017.

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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2017). Leading causes of death. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia/contents/leading-causes-of-death
Credible resource that provides an explanation for why youth suicide is often portrayed by the media to be the highest. Compares causes of death for each age group to give a differingperspective.

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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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Leading underlying causes of death by sex

Figure 3.1 below shows the number of male and female deaths contributing to the top 5 causes. The leading cause of death for males was coronary heart disease, accounting for 10,448 (12%) deaths. Dementia including Alzheimer disease was the leading cause of death for females, accounting for 9,522 (12%) deaths, followed by coronary heart disease (7,283; 9% of deaths). Cerebrovascular disease (which includes stroke), lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) make up the top 5 leading underlying causes of death in Australia in 2019, for males and females of all ages combined. For more leading causes of death by sex see Table S3.1.

Figure 3.1: Leading underlying causes of death, by sex, 2019

Note: Leading causes of death are based on underlying causes of death and classified using an AIHW-modified version of Becker et al. 2006.

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database ( Table S3.1).

Leading underlying causes of death by age

As well as differences by sex, the leading causes of death also vary by age. Chronic diseases feature more prominently among people aged 45 and over, while the leading causes of death among people aged 1-44 are external causes, such as accidents and suicides (Figure 3.2).

Among infants, perinatal and congenital conditions caused the most (80%) deaths.

Land transport accidents were the most common cause of death among children aged 1-14 (12%). Suicide was the leading cause of death among people aged 15-24 (37%), followed by land transport accidents (20%). For people aged 25-44, it was also suicide (23%), followed by accidental poisoning (13%).

Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of death for people aged 45-64 and people aged 75-84. For people aged 65-74, the leading cause of death was lung cancer followed by coronary heart disease, and for people aged 85 and over, it was dementia including Alzheimer disease, followed by coronary heart disease.

Figure 3.2: Leading causes of death, by age group, 2017-2019

1. 'Other ill-defined causes' include the following codes: Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (ICD-10 codes R00-R99, excluding R95: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)); Respiratory failure of newborn (P28.5); Respiratory failure, unspecified (J96.9). AIHW General Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books are available for selected leading causes of death.

2. There were no suicide deaths in children under 5. The number of deaths of children attributed to suicide can be influenced by coronial reporting practices, see ABS 3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2011 (Explanatory Notes 92-95) for further information.

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database ( Table S3.2).

Classifying causes of death

Leading underlying causes of death are determined by grouping specific causes of death and counting the number of deaths assigned to each cause group. Over 14,000 specific causes of illness, injury and death are presented in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10). These causes can be grouped in a way that is meaningful for public health purposes.

A common grouping is by ICD chapters which are broad categories arranged according to the type of disease, the body system affected by the disease or the circumstances causing death. Each chapter is further divided into blocks of related diseases. Australian cause of death data by ICD-10 chapters and selected causes of death are published in the AIHW General Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books.

For leading underlying cause of death analysis, information needs to be more specific than ICD chapters and blocks. There is no standard method for grouping causes, however, the AIHW follows the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) (Becker et al. 2006) with minor modifications to suit the Australian context. This grouping is a mix of ICD chapters, blocks and specific diseases to maximise information, separate out ill-defined causes and highlight health priority areas.

The leading underlying causes of death presented here are classified using an AIHW-modified version of Becker et al.

Reference

Becker R, Silvi J, Ma Fat D, L'Hours A & Laurenti R 2006. A method for deriving leading causes of death. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 84:297-304.

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Deaths in Australia, Leading causes of death - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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Figure 3.1 below shows the number of male and female deaths contributing to the top 5 causes. The leading cause of death for males was coronary heart disease, accounting for 10,448 (12%) deaths. Dementia including Alzheimer disease was the leading cause of death for females, accounting for 9,522 (12%) deaths, followed by coronary heart disease (7,283; 9% of deaths).

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Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies. (n.d.). Youth Focus. Retrieved from http://acys.info/resources/test-content-edited/youth-focus/
From the list of approved resources. Credible resource. Youth Focus is an organisation offering free mental health services to people aged 12-25 years in WA. Article aims to advertise the organisations services offered. Uses leading language to generate a negative perception to the reader of Youth Suicide as a leading youth issue.

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In 2013-14, an estimated 2,000 young people accessed Youth Focus's face-to-face counselling sessions. In addition, an estimated 15,000 young people took part in their preventative and educational programs over the same period. The average age of clients is 15 years, although Felicite Black said that one of the future goals of Youth Focus is to work more with 18-25-year-olds.

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zero2hero Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign

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zero2hero Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign

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zero2hero (Producer). (2012, September 20). Wake Up! [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5KINFxgNuQk
Non-credible resource. Youth Suicide prevention campaign released in 2012 by zero2hero. The aim of the video is to raise awareness of the need for suicide prevention for youth. To create moral panic the video uses leading language and visual priming to alter the viewers perception of the issue.

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zero2hero Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign

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Nilan, P., Julian, R., & Germov, J. (2007). Australian youth : Social and cultural issues. Frenchs Forest, New South Wales: Pearson Education Australia.

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Nilan, P., Julian, R., & Germov, J. (2007). Australian youth : Social and cultural issues. Frenchs Forest, New South Wales: Pearson Education Australia.

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Credible Resource used within the unit. Although it was published in 2007, the information is still relevant and supports newer research findings. Explores how media has influence on societies perceptions of youth issues. Discusses suicide and how statistics reveal youth to have the lowest rate. Explores how media has generated panic regarding the issue.

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Pirkis, J., Burgess, P., Francis, C., Blood, R., & Jolley, D. (2006). The relationship between media reporting of suicide and actual suicide in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 62(11), 2874-2886. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.033

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Pirkis, J., Burgess, P., Francis, C., Blood, R., & Jolley, D. (2006). The relationship between media reporting of suicide and actual suicide in Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 62(11), 2874-2886. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.033

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Credible source. Journal article focusing on the role of the media in reporting suicide in Australia

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The relationship between media reporting of suicide and actual suicide in Australia

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This study aimed to determine whether media items about suicide were associated with differential increases in actual suicides. Data were available on...

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Johnston, A., Pirkis, J., & Burgess, P. (2009). Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours Among Australian Adults: Findings from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Australian & New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry, 43(7), 635-643. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00048670902970874

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Johnston, A., Pirkis, J., & Burgess, P. (2009). Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours Among Australian Adults: Findings from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Australian & New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry, 43(7), 635-643. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00048670902970874

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Credible source.
Might be useful for comparison between suicidal behaviour of young people and adults

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Morrell, S., Page, A., & Taylor, R. (2007). The decline in Australian young male suicide. Social Science & Medicine, 64(3), 747-754. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.09.027 

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Morrell, S., Page, A., & Taylor, R. (2007). The decline in Australian young male suicide. Social Science & Medicine, 64(3), 747-754. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.09.027 

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Credible Source, Journal Article focusing on the decline in Australian young male suicide

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The decline in Australian young male suicide

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Since the late 1990s there has been a sharp downward trend in Australian young male suicide. It is possible that a major government youth suicide prev...

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Biddle, L., Brock, A., Brookes, S., & Gunnell, D. (2008). Suicide rates in young men in England and Wales in the 21st century: time trend study. BMJ, 336(7643), 539-542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39475.603935.25

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Biddle, L., Brock, A., Brookes, S., & Gunnell, D. (2008). Suicide rates in young men in England and Wales in the 21st century: time trend study. BMJ, 336(7643), 539-542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39475.603935.25

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Credible Source. Objective of Research paper being to explore trends in suicide in young people to investigate the recent observation that after year on year rises in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, rates in young men are now declining.

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1. Lucy Biddle , research fellow 1,

2. Anita Brock , senior research officer, mortality statistics 2,

3. Sara T Brookes , senior lecturer in medical statistics 1,

4. David Gunnell , professor of epidemiology 1

1. 1Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR

2. 2Office for National Statistics, London SW1V 2QQ

Correspondence to: D Gunnell D.J.Gunnell{at}bristol.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives To explore trends in suicide in young people to investigate the recent observation that after year on year rises in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, rates in young men are now declining.

Design Time trend analysis.

Setting England and Wales, 1968-2005.

Population Men and women aged 15-34 years.

Results Since the 1990s, rates of suicide in young men have declined steadily and by 2005 they were at their lowest level for almost 30 years. This decline is partly because of a reduction in poisoning with car exhaust gas as an increased number of cars have catalytic converters; but there have been declines in suicides from all common methods, including hanging, suggesting a more pervasive effect. Other risk factors for suicide, such as unemployment and divorce, have also decreased. Possible recent reductions in alcohol use among young men and increases in prescribing of antidepressants do not seem to be temporally related to the decline in suicide.

Conclusions Suicide rates in young men have declined markedly in the past 10 years in England and Wales. Reductions in key risk factors for suicide, such as unemployment, might be contributing to lower rates.

Introduction

One of the most striking features of the epidemiology of suicide in the late 20th century was the epidemic rise in suicide among young men in most industrialised nations. 1 From 1950 to 1998 in England and Wales, rates of suicide in men aged under 45 doubled, while rates in women and older men declined. 2 During the 1990s, rates in young men aged 15-24 reached an all time high and were at their highest since the 1920s in men aged 25-34 years. Suicide accounted for about a fifth of all deaths in young men, 3 and men aged 25-34 had the highest rate of all age-sex groups. 2 Such trends have led to suicide becoming a major contributor to premature mortality 4 and are thought to indicate deteriorating mental wellbeing in younger people.

The cause for these rises is uncertain, though time series data show parallel increases in a range of risk factors including unemployment, divorce, substance misuse, and income inequality. 2 Furthermore, changes in the availability and use of common methods of suicide, particularly domestic gas, barbiturates, and motor vehicle exhaust gases, have had an important impact on suicide rates and trends in the past 50 years. 5 6 7

There is a popular notion that rates of suicide in young people have continued to rise. A sharp downward trend in suicide in young men, however, has been reported in Australia, 8 and preliminary data suggest similar findings in England and Wales. 3 We explored recent trends in overall suicide, suicide by specific methods, and risk factors for suicide among young people.

Methods

We used data from the Office for National Statistics on suicide in men and women aged 15-24 and 25-34 for the period 1968-2005. These data are based on the year of death registration in the years up to 1992 and, from 1993 onwards, the actual date of death. Because of the formal inquest process for possible suicides, registration might not occur until many months after the death occurred. We included all deaths with a coroner's verdict of intentional self harm or of injury or poisoning of undetermined intent (open verdict) as most of these deaths in adults were self inflicted but there was insufficient evidence to prove that they intended to kill themselves. 9 This is the routine approach taken for government suicide statistics. 3 10 For simplicity, we have used the term "suicide" to refer to deaths in both these categories throughout.

Three successive revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-8 to ICD-10) covered the period examined. Previous analysis has shown that there is no impact on the total number of suicides between revisions, 3 but there are differences in how method of injury is classified. We identified seven consistently coded methods of suicide: poisoning by solid or liquid (including drug poisoning); other poisoning (including domestic gas supply and vehicle exhaust); hanging (including suffocation); drowning; firearms (including explosives); jumping; and other (including injury from sharp object) (see table A on bmj.com). We also analysed trends in deaths recorded as accidental poisonings (ICD-8 E850-E877; ICD-9 E850-E869; ICD-10 X40-X49) to investigate whether any decreases in suicide rates might be attributable to changes in coroners' recording practices rather than changes in the incidence of suicide; verdicts of "accidental death" are the most likely alternative to suicide or open verdicts.

We used age specific population estimates for England and Wales for the years 1968-2005 to calculate rates and the most up to date populations revised to take account of the 2001 census. The main analysis plotted trends in overall rates and rates for specific methods for men and women aged 15-24 and 25-34 separately. Time series data specific for age and sex for divorce and unemployment ( www.statistics.gov.uk/), self reported data on alcohol use from the general household survey, 11 and UK data on antidepressant prescribing (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, tricyclics, and other related antidepressants) from IMS Health (Intercontinental Medical Statistics) ( http://research.imshealth.com/contactus.htm) were also obtained and plotted. These were compared with patterns in suicide to identify possible associations. Age groups could not be matched exactly. Unemployment data were not available for those aged 16 and 17, alcohol data were available only for those aged 16-24 and 25-44, and prescribing data were available for those aged 20-29.

Continuous data series were not available for a sufficient time period to enable us to undertake a full multivariable time series analysis. To crudely assess associations of changing levels of risk factors with suicide rates we calculated correlations between differences in suicide and difference in levels in consecutive years. This approach takes account of the well known problem with time series data-serial autocorrelation (non-independence) of data from consecutive years.

Results

Discussion

Footnotes

We thank Peter Stephens, IMS, for antidepressant prescribing data and Ben Wheeler, Department of Social Medicine, for extracting the data.

Contributors: LB and DG had the idea for the study and developed the study hypotheses. LB and AB identified relevant data sources and collated the data. LB and STB summarised and plotted the data. LB wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors contributed to revising the paper for intellectual content and approved the final draft. LB and DG are guarantors.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: None declared.

Ethical approval: Not required.

Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

View Abstract

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Suicide rates in young men in England and Wales in the 21st century: time trend study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lucy Biddle , research fellow 1, Anita Brock , senior research officer, mortality statistics 2, Sara T Brookes , senior lecturer in medical statistics 1, David Gunnell , professor of epidemiology 1 1Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR 2Office for National Statistics, London SW1V 2QQ Correspondence to: D Gunnell D.J.Gunnell{at}bristol.ac.uk Objectives To explore trends in suicide in young people to investigate the recent observation that after year on year rises in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, rates in young men are now declining.

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White, J. (2007). Working in the midst of ideological and cultural differences: Critically reflecting on youth suicide prevention in indigenous communities. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 41(4), 213-227. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.ecu.edu.au/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/195798640?accountid=10675

# data[].attributes.subject
White, J. (2007). Working in the midst of ideological and cultural differences: Critically reflecting on youth suicide prevention in indigenous communities. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 41(4), 213-227. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.ecu.edu.au/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/195798640?accountid=10675

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Credible source, Journal article reflecting in Youth suicide prevention with an emphasis on Indigenous communities

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Beautrais, A. (2000). Risk Factors for Suicide and Attempted Suicide among Young People. Australian & New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry, 34(3), 420-436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2000.00691.x

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Beautrais, A. (2000). Risk Factors for Suicide and Attempted Suicide among Young People. Australian & New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry, 34(3), 420-436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2000.00691.x

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Credible source, Journal article published on the 1st June 2000 focusing on the risk factors of suicide and attempted suicide.

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Credible source, Journal article published on 1st September 2003. Focus of the article on the social dynamics of shame and youth suicide.

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Gilchrist, H., Howarth, G., & Sullivan, G. (2007). The Cultural Context of Youth Suicide in Australia: Unemployment, Identity and Gender. Social Policy And Society, 6(02), 151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1474746406003423

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Gilchrist, H., Howarth, G., & Sullivan, G. (2007). The Cultural Context of Youth Suicide in Australia: Unemployment, Identity and Gender. Social Policy And Society, 6(02), 151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1474746406003423

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Credible source, Journal article that considers the impact, in terms of life and death choices, of the economic exclusion of young people in Australia, where suicide is the leading cause of death by injury

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Social Policy and Society

This article considers the impact, in terms of life and death choices, of the economic exclusion of young people in Australia, where suicide is the leading cause of death by injury. In the two decades from 1980 there was a dramatic increase in suicide rates for young males. Research demonstrates a correlation between youth suicide and unemployment but the complex relationship between the two has not been fully investigated. This article explores the perceptions of young people, parents and service providers of the cultural context of suicide and how it comes to be constructed as an option for young people experiencing economic marginalisation.

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The Cultural Context of Youth Suicide in Australia: Unemployment, Identity and Gender | Social Policy and Society | Cambridge Core

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social Policy and Society This article considers the impact, in terms of life and death choices, of the economic exclusion of young people in Australia, where suicide is the leading cause of death by injury. In the two decades from 1980 there was a dramatic increase in suicide rates for young males.

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Credible source, Journal article published on 1st June 2000,  focussing on the trends in the rate of suicide among young Australians aged 15–24 years from 1964 to 1997 and presents an age-period-cohort analysis of these trends

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Ruzicka, L., & Choi, C. (1999). Youth suicide in Australia. Journal Of The Australian Population Association, 16(1-2), 29-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf03029453

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Ruzicka, L., & Choi, C. (1999). Youth suicide in Australia. Journal Of The Australian Population Association, 16(1-2), 29-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf03029453

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Credible Source, Journal article published for the period of May-Nov 1999. Article focuses on fatal suicides in Australia and the mortality rates and patterns since the 1950s.

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Journal of the Australian Population Association - Youth suicide in Australia (APAFT) - Informit

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Informit is an online service offering a wide range of database and full content publication products that deliver the vast majority of Australasian scholarly research to the education, research and business sectors. Informit encompasses online products: Informit Indexes, Informit Plus Text and Informit Collections.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics: Causes of Death 2016.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics: Causes of Death 2016.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2017). 3303.0 Causes of Death, Australia, 2016.
Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/3303.0~2016~Main%20Features~Intentional%20self-harm:%20key%20characteristics~7
Credible and approved resource reporting the most recent statistical figures on suicide in Australia. Data is presented fairly, accurately and without bias or opinion. Presents actual statistics that demonstrate the truth of the myth.

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3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2016

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Summary of Findings Causes of Death, Australia, 3303.0 focuses on the causes of the 158,504 deaths registered in 2016. This issue provides several articles on particular causes or topics (detailed below), as well as comprehensive data cubes covering all causes by key demographics Leading causes of death This article provides analysis on Australia's leading causes of death, including changes over time and differences for males and females.

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Headspace: Australia's National Youth Mental Health Foundation

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Headspace: Australia's National Youth Mental Health Foundation

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Headspace: Australia's National Youth Mental Health Foudation. (2016). New ABS figures: youth suicide. Retrieved from https://headspace.org.au/news/new-abs-figures-youth-suicide/
Approved resource, non-credible media release. This article produced by headspace in 2016 reviews the 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) death statistics, with specific focus on the youth findings. This article is a good representation of how moral panic is generated on the issue as this is how it is presented within society. The data is narrowly focused on only youth findings, making it out of perspective, and uses powerful statements that infer it as a critical issue.

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Below is a summary of youth specific figures released yesterday (28 September, 2016) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) regarding deaths by intentional self-harm (suicide) in 2015.

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https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8RC-7XRRVSU/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCPYBEIoBSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLCl3rVQPHOycICmS3Sou2G7_yH3CA

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrmAqvlbDM

This youtube video

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Fraser, S. L., Geoffroy, D. , Chachamovich, E. and Kirmayer, L. J. (2015), Changing Rates of Suicide Ideation and Attempts Among Inuit Youth: A Gender‐Based Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors. Suicide Life Threat Behav, 45: 141-156. doi:10.1111/sltb.12122

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Fraser, S. L., Geoffroy, D. , Chachamovich, E. and Kirmayer, L. J. (2015), Changing Rates of Suicide Ideation and Attempts Among Inuit Youth: A Gender‐Based Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors. Suicide Life Threat Behav, 45: 141-156. doi:10.1111/sltb.12122

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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sltb.12122/full
Credible source, this is about attempts among young persons suicide rates.

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http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302496

I am not referencing this as I don't think this source should be used as it is American but it could suggest as they are helping to decrease the problem.

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Youth Suicide Risk and Preventive Interventions: A Review of the Past 10 YearsGOULD, MADELYN S.GREENBERG, TEDVELTING, DREW M.SHAFFER, DAVID et al.Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , 386 - 405 

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Youth Suicide Risk and Preventive Interventions: A Review of the Past 10 YearsGOULD, MADELYN S.GREENBERG, TEDVELTING, DREW M.SHAFFER, DAVID et al.Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , 386 - 405 

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http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567(09)60911-4/abstract
Although I have refrenced this once again, I would only suggest using this as a last resort. it is a 2003 article

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https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eFkeqjA6PTs/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEXCPYBEIoBSFryq4qpAwkIARUAAIhCGAE=&rs=AOn4CLCo785j1grBIDHa7VUwzlqM5mlAog