‘Talk about it to prevent it’

“One of the myths surrounding suicide is that if you talk about suicide, it would give the idea to someone: ‘Oh, I haven’t thought about that; maybe I should kill myself.’ But all the experts agree that it is just a myth. The best thing we can do is talk about it.”

Thus said Pacific Way Institute’s Brian Farley, a member of the Suicide Awareness and Prevention Task Force formed by the Community Guidance Center.

Considering that the suicide rate in the Commonwealth was reported to be high, the task force is intensifying its campaign on suicide awareness and prevention. This week, videos showing the narration of persons who attempted to commit suicide would be shown on local television.

There are at least five new suicide-related incidents this month, according to Farley. Four of these involve Filipinos; two of them actually died. The incidents happened during the first week of April.

“There was a female that was threatening to commit suicide at the [Northern Marianas] College,” he added. Because of this, NMC counselors Susan Satur and Nancy Flood were not able to attend a task force meeting recently since they “had an emergency at the college.”

CGC head Josephine Sablan disclosed that the survey results among 3,886 students from grade 6 to college, whose ages range from 10 to 20, were alarming.

Results of the survey showed that 39 percent of the students surveyed – or 1,515 respondents – said that they have thought of attempting to commit suicide in the past 30 days.

The report also showed that 23 percent of the respondents, or about 893 students, claimed they had actually attempted to commit suicide; 20 percent, or some 777 students, said they had planned how to take their own lives.

Based on the survey, 40 percent of the respondents – or some 1,554 students – disclosed that they feel giving up is easier than facing problems; 70 percent, or 2,720 students, said they have felt very sad, alone, happy or ashamed.

Sablan disclosed that the top seven reasons given by the students were family problems, cited by 65 percent of the respondents; anger, 55 percent; depression, 45 percent; scolding, 34 percent; relationship breakup, 21 percent; shame, 20 percent; and parents divorcing, 9 percent.

Talk as prevention

“To someone who is thinking to commit suicide, tell him to talk to somebody about his problem,” Farley said. “Oftentimes, people would be prevented from learning suicide simply by talking about the problem.”

“Sometimes, people who make suicide attempts or even talk about it, in a sense they’re asking for help. It’s a mistake to say ‘Don’t talk like that’ or ‘You’re joking’, or something like that,” he said. “When [thoughts such as] ‘I feel like killing myself, I feel like going to sleep forever, I feel like nobody wants me, there’s no reason for me to be around anymore, or the world will be a better place without me’ — anybody who talks like that is really saying ‘I really feel bad and I need somebody to recognize that.’”

The right thing to do is to ask that person having suicidal thoughts if he is planning to take his life so that one can help him, Farley said. Referring this person to an adult, a professional counselor, priest, uncle or trusted member of the family would be appropriate.

A former journalist, Farley also said not covering suicide incidents is wrong “if you are a newspaper.” Similarly, overplaying a suicide story should also be avoided, he added.

“My son committed suicide six years ago, and I really want to see something done in this community to prevent other kids from doing the same thing,” he said.

Farley said he would donate to the CGC a suicide prevention kit for students, which he purchased from the United States mainland.

Farley said that, based on the recommendation of Dr. Anthony Bottone of the Commonwealth Health Center, the adoption of suicide screening program for students and parents would be proposed for consideration by the task force.

The SOS (Signs of Suicide) School Suicide Prevention Program is being implemented in the US, he added. The task force is working on the issue on how to incorporate suicide as a subject in CNMI schools.

The task force is set to meet this week, to work on the creation of some six subcommittees that would be tasked with carrying out the 13 goals outlined by the group.

The 13 goals are to:

• Develop and implement public education programs;

• Educate youths and adults about suicide prevention by developing and implementing community-based suicide prevention programs;

• Increase harmony and reduce conflict among students and support multicultural diversity in order to provide a safe and supportive learning environment;

• Provide media education and guidelines;

• Provide education for professionals in the assessment and management of suicide risk, and identification and promotion of protective factors;

• Provide gatekeeper training;

• Implement screening and referral services;

• Enhance crisis services;

• Improve access to behavioral health care;

• Provide skill-building support groups for youth;

• Support suicide survivors;

• Improve follow-up services for suicide attempters; and

• Promote and support research evaluation.