Black dog of depression can bite anyone so we all need to watch out for friends, family.
New Zealand has the worst teenage suicide rate in the developed world, and the second worst for young people under 26. The natural response to these statistics is to wonder how this could be so in a country as pleasant, peaceful, quiet and prosperous as New Zealand. One of the difficulties of talking about suicidal depression is that the natural reaction is not helpful.
As a young survivor of two suicide attempts told the Herald this week, "We've been taught that we aren't allowed to be sad, that we have more than the generations before us so there is apparently no need for us to feel down. Let's admit it, adults look at us teens and young adults as if we are useless if we don't have jobs or aren't studying for some sort of career."
What can we do about that? Certainly the country should continue to do everything possible to encourage school leavers to take the jobs or training courses that are both abundant in New Zealand today. But we need to be careful how we talk about those who do not take these opportunities. It is timely to say so as an election approaches because the Labour Party is focusing its policies strongly on the estimated 90,000 young people not in employment, education or training and there will be debate about their motivation.
How we talk about youth suicide is vitally important but first the country has to make the decision to talk about it. The Herald has called its series on the subject "Break the Silence", partly because New Zealand is unusual in having a law of silence. The news media are not supposed to report a death as suicide unless a coroner gives permission, and, if they do, many of the circumstances are likely to be suppressed. The health authorities want suicide to be publicly discussed only in generalities, not with reference to particular cases.
