While I write this I am listening to “Make it Stop (September’s Children)” by Rise Against.
On 22 September 2010 Tyler Clamenti jumped to his death off the George Washington bridge after his roommate posted an encounter he had live on the internet. In the following days American media brought Tyler’s story to national attention, and while it my have been what drove Tyler to suicide that first caught their attention, it highlighted the issue of youth suicide to the nation. In the following days more stories came to light and America final started to pay attention. When I looked into New Zealand’s statistics I found that for people under the age of 24 we were the second highest (per capita 100,000) in the developed world.
It’s a year later and New Zealand’s Chief Coroner, Judge Neil MacLean has released the latest statics for suicides in New Zealand. The report found that in this country 558 would die from suicide. Of those, 133 will be under the age of 24. We now have the highest suicide rate of teenage/adult youth girls and third highest of teenage/adult youth boys in the developed world. So where is our outcry? Where is our “It Gets Better Project”? It took 5 deaths in a population of 307,006,550 for America to take notice. We have 133 deaths in a population of 4,414,326. When are we going to stand up and admit there is a major problem and do something about it.
In standing up to the issue, how do you think we could make the problem heard? i find that when talking about a dreaded or negative topic, it tends to get people depressed. that could lead to suicide, so how could we overcome that issue whilst also raising this one?
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