TV3 must surely have had qualms about its screening on Wednesday night of a dramatised play and panel discussion on youth suicide. Others certainly doubted its wisdom. Of a six-member group advising on the show, four - including the Commissioner for Children, a Health Ministry representative and a youth suicide expert - did not want it shown.
Reprising a well-worn line, they argued that any such airing of the subject could cause copycat suicides.
TV3's doubts must, however, have evaporated when viewers responded to the programme. Lines to the channel and a helpline were jammed even before the show ended.
That represented the strongest of rebuttals to those who would maintain a veil of silence, even in a country burdened by one of the world's most tragic rates of youth suicide.
The response, both in calls to the helpline and in the mainly positive reaction from viewers, carried a clear message: the time has come to confront youth suicide by talking about it openly and frankly.
TV3's contribution, an invaluable part of that process, was, in fact, an exercise in responsibility. Details of methods of suicide were avoided; the emphasis was on life before and after the self-inflicted deaths of three young people. It offered a forum for those most needing and wanting to talk - parents left distraught by a suicide and those who had contemplated or attempted suicide.
The chord it struck reinforced the overwhelming response this month to the Yellow Ribbon Campaign, which aims to involve young people in preventing suicide among their peers.
The success of such initiatives should cause many in the health profession to examine their opposition to a climate of openness. Silence has not made the problem go away.
A recent Christchurch Medical School study found that male youth suicide rates had nearly doubled over the past two decades, from 20.3 a 100,000 in 1977 to 39.5 in 1996. And while suicide is usually associated with males, the rate among young females has also surged, from 4 a 100,000 in 1977 to 14.3 in 1996.
While all this has been going on, coroners, backed by health bureaucrats, have imposed suffocating restrictions on publicity. Unless a coroner rules otherwise, all that can be reported in cases of suicide is that someone died and there were no suspicious circumstances.
Such suppression has been counterproductive, just as it served no worthwhile function in other formerly taboo areas, such as sexual abuse within families. Even its intent - usually to protect the grieving family from the public glare - is undermined by the willingness of many parents to confront and discuss their loss as they search for answers. Theirs is the greatest agony.
That is not, of course, to play down the pain and suffering of the act of suicide. While TV3 chose not to enter that territory, more openness about the realities of suicide - without glorifying the act or offering gratuitous detail - would surely give those contemplating it reason to pause. Romantic notions would quickly disappear.
Again, it is not logical to suggest that suppressing information on the methods that young New Zealanders use to kill themselves will reduce the suicide rate. The methods are widely available, widely known and difficult to restrict. Publicity of a particular method may prompt a person contemplating suicide to use it, but is hardly an inducement.
The answer to our appalling suicide rate lies not in stifling publicity but in identifying the risks and addressing the causes that lead people to take their own lives.
Asking young survivors of suicide attempts to explain what drove them to that drastic action - as a University of Auckland research team is doing - is an important part of that process.
However, parents and friends cannot expect to be aware of everyday danger signs if the issue remains shrouded. Nor can they know what they can do best to help. And nor can those contemplating suicide gain a clear understanding of how best to get help.
The deluge of calls to the temporary 0800 helpline highlighted by the TV3 programme offered graphic evidence of the absence of such knowledge. What, if any, avenue of help would those callers have pursued if that service had not been available? Talking about the issue has already helped them.
NZ Yellow Ribbon Programme
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Showing the way with a yellow ribbon
<i>Editorial:</i> Veil over suicide quite rightly rent
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