8.The Province

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Suicides second-leading cause of child death in B.C. : report

By Staff reporter

In reading this article I was absolutely shocked at the statistics that were given. I knew that suicide has been a growing concern but I had no idea that it was the second-leading cause of preventable deaths in British Columbia, car accidents being the first. I did a project on suicide about five or six years ago and from what I can remember, the suicide rates were on a decrease. That is obviously not the case any more, it is extremely apparent that the suicide rates have gone up dramatically in the last few years and are very high in our own province. In this article, Kilpatrick said, "the increase in suicides is an obvious concern and we will be conducting a separate review of suicide deaths referred to the CDRU over the past five years to try to find some answers." The CDRU (child death review unit) will be conducting many more reviews to get more detailed reports. Also, most of the kids who died by suicide had "stated their intent prior to their death." This usually means these kids are reaching out and trying to seek help, they usually do not really want to die but they can't see any other way out.

This article caught my eye and is close to my heart because I have had an relative in which I was extremely close with commit suicide. She was only two years older than I was so it was very hard to deal with. The questions that go through the family and friends' heads are never-ending. I do not exactly know how or what people and organizations can do to help decrease suicide other than putting together more youth groups and activities and help lines. Another way is informing children in presentations on what to look for if one of your friends seems very unhappy in life and has threatened to commit suicide. I wish I had known what to look for and maybe things would be different but you can't go back in time, you can only go forward and help prevent things in the future.

People should not feel that suicide is the only way out. Sometimes people have their mind's made up and it cannot be stopped but many times people really do not want to end their lives. They will usually make it obvious that they are thinking about it and that is their way of reaching out. In many cases people who attempt suicide but do not succeed they are very grateful they still have their lives and will try and get help with depression and other illnesses. This article is a shocking realization for many people that this is a growing epidemic and it is very bad in our own community, we have to ban together and see what we can do to help decrease the statistics.