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Friday, March 1 16,1984 page 11

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THE OTHER PRESS

 

- Suicide Stories Misleading

‘‘Pressures drive students
to despair,’’ ‘’Teen suicides
a cry for help,’’ ‘Youth
suicides increase sharply.’’

 

 

sion supplied or simply bad
ournalism.”’

“1 would be inclined to

see it as bad journalism.”’

Teenage suicide has be-
come ‘‘the standard for the
hour in the media,’’ espe-
cially within the last three or
four years, says Eglin. Not

sons for the increase in the
raw number of suicides re-
ported in Canada.

Between the years of 1963

sons for the increase in the
number of deaths attributed
to suicide is the perception
of the act itself, he says.
Previously, it was consid-

reprinted from The Varsity Examples of misleading only has suicide gained anq 1980, the number of ered a disgrace to label a
by Blaine Connolly and explosive headlines can Prominence in many arti- coroner investigations into death ‘‘suicide.””
oe found throughout the cles, journals, and documen- deaths have more than According to Eglin, this

Do these headlines point
to a growing problem of
teenage suicide? According
to Dr. Peter Eglin, associate
professor of sociology at
Wilfred. Laurier University,
‘media suicide’ is the only
type of suicide teens are
prone to.

Headlines like the ones
above are used in the media
to capture the attention of

media industry. According
to Eglin, ‘‘the same people,
although | don’t want to
mention any names, are
being used as authorities in
making these claims.’

Careful study of statistics

can show how some of the.

problems arise. One of the
worst examples Eglin has
seen was in an article in the
Globe and Mail in May of

taries, but it is also being
closely linked to other prob-
lems within society. Alcohol-
ism, unemployment and sui-
cide are being used collec-
tively as ‘‘symptomatic of
the degeneration of our soci-
ety as a whole,’’ claims
Eglin.

The attention given to this
problem has also created an
organizational framework

doubled, says Eglin. As of
1980, 44.2 per cent of all the
deaths in the province were
investigated; this means
that the actual cause of
death is more likely to be
found. In contrast, in 1963

only 21.5 per cent of Ontario °

deaths were investigated.
Many of the uninvestigated
suicides could have been
simply recorded as_ acci-
dents, says Eglin.

perception is changing with-
in society and there is an
increased readiness to mark
the cause of death as sui-
cide. This in itself can raise
the figures over the last few
decades.

‘1 don’t believe there is a
problem (with teenage sui-
cides) in a way which de-
serves the term epidemic. |
think it is the suicidologist’s
problem and possibly the

their audience, but, claims 1982. The headline read that attempts to control it. sociologist’s,’’” said Eglin.
Elgin, ‘‘they often contain ‘Teenage suicides called Distress lines and various When Eglin studied the
misleading or totally inac- ‘pandemic’, implying an al- help centers, both private number of deaths investiga-

curate information.’’

An article which appeared
n the Kitchener-Waterloo
Record in October of 1982
1oted that 110 teen suicides

most world-wide crisis. This
article claimed 700 male
teenage suicides in 1979,
but according to Statistics
Canada, the actual figure
was only 266. Statistics’ Can-

and public, have been crea-
ted to deal with suicide, and
in the process has increased
public awareness of suicide.

Behind the media and

ted and the proportion of
those that were suicides, he
saw an increase from only
4.6 to 4.8 from 1965 to 1980.
This, he claims, can hardly

¢ tati 5 Ca governmental level, claims be called an epidemic
vere predicated for Toronto ada includes within this fig- have been made by profes- growth.
ilone. According ‘to Statis- ure males from ages of sionals. in psychiatry, psy- As well, improved tech- ,

ics Canada, however, there
vere only 89 teen (ages
10-19) suicides in all of
Intario during 1980.

These misinterpretations,
states Eglin, ‘‘may be
-hrough inaccurate incorma-

 

10-19. THe only way one
could even come close to the
700 mark, according to Eg-
lin, is to include males
20-24. ‘‘When was the last

time you considered a 24-
year-old a teenager?’’

chology, sociology and other
fields of ‘‘an epidemic of
teenage suicide focused on
the 15 to 19-year-olds,’’ says
Eglin. Eglin, who studied
the area of teenage suicide
for years, sees several rea-

 

nology has given investiga-
tors the ability to identify
drugs and other matter in '
the bloodstream which can
identify suicide as the cause
of death, explains Eglin.

One of the primary rea-

 

 

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