Oct 2009 Dr Cassidy

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Ffynnon Director: Jonathan Skipper MA, Dip Surv, PCAT cert.

TEENAGE SUICIDE AND YOUNG DEATHS - ‘LOOK and LISTEN’ INTERVENTION, PREVENTION AND UNDERSTANDING

Innovative Prevention Strategies in Working with Para Suicidal Teenagers

including the Social Psychology of Clustering.

Seminar with Dr Arthur Cassidy (Northern Ireland)

North Wales Border - Glyndŵr University,

Wrexham, 31^st October 2009

“Helplessness and hopelessness..... It’s not just about the end it’s about the journey to the end. There are many young people on that journey right now, how can we join them on their journey, come along side and offer hope?”

‘LOOK AND LISTEN’ is a seminar is designed to help caregivers and those in positions of trust to become more ready and able to help young people at risk. This seminar is suitable for mental health professionals, nurses, physicians, teachers, mentors, counsellors, therapists, youth workers, police and correctional staff, school support staff, clergy and community volunteers.

THE DAY WILL OFFER AND BRING TOGETHER INFORMATION, PERCEPTION, CHALLENGE, INSIGHT, AWARENESS AND ALERTNESS AND STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE.

A Few thoughts and ideas for reflection:

*What makes a teenager turn to suicide? There are no easy answers to this question as all cases are unique-one youngster might kill himself apparently out of the blue while another talks about it obsessively for months beforehand.

*Being able to Identify and respond to warning signs can help prevent suicide among teens and young adults. Not all suicide attempts are preceded with an obvious warning. However, many occur with at least some outward signals to friends or family members.

*There is much scientific research to show the impact of negative or sensationalised suicide reporting in the media and its role in causing suicidal contagion and suicide by imitation. Repeated and continual coverage of suicide might make the idea of suicide seem "normal" and an acceptable way of thinking in vulnerable young people.

*Most young completed "suicides" are perhaps not suicides at all, but death by narrative, by accident, without intent. A suicide is only a suicide when the coroner finds objective evidence that the young person intended to die. Precision and accuracy are all important, and whether a young death is a suicide or not cannot be confirmed until after a coroners finding at a particular inquest. With this in mind it is preferable to refer to these deaths as simply young deaths rather than a suicide until the coroner’s report is finished.

*Teenage suicide statistics: Many experts in the field of teenage suicide would argue that it is not possible as yet to compile any form of accurate statistics for teenage suicide as interpreting statistics ultimately depends on what criteria is established in any given society as to what constitutes suicide.

*What is clear is that it happens far too often. The number of suicides is often underestimated. The extent of underestimation varies from country to country depending on the ways in which suicide is ascertained. Other reasons for the underestimation of suicide include stigma, social and political factors and insurance regulations, which means that some suicides may be reported under the guise of accidents or death from undetermined causes.

*There are numerous internet sites where youngsters discuss methods and attempts at suicide. It is an unpalatable but undeniable fact that death attracts attention. Internet websites such as YouTube, Face book, Bebo, My space, Second life, etc. show suicidal techniques sometimes disguised as "Games".
*Teenagers are trying out different identities and looking for role models and can be easily influenced by self-harming celebrities. The media can glamorize and romanticize death. There is loads of music, film, art, poetry and so on which glorify suicide.
*Alcohol is the most powerful addictive drug abused today by Britain's youth and is one of the most common causes of completed suicide. There is scientific evidence in Britain that many binge drinkers try to kill themselves whilst under the influence of a heavy drinking session as this is associated with Impulsive acts of behaviour.

“We try to break down the negative thought patterns in which death are an option and replace them with a learned optimism.” Dr Arthur Cassidy.

Dr Arthur Cassidy is a social psychologist at Belfast Metropolitan College and the Open University. His area of research expertise is in the nature of suicide clusters, their formation and maintenance and innovative strategies for suicide prevention in teenagers. He is interested in teenagers self perceived competence and personal effectiveness and threatened identities.

Arthur is Director of XChange Suicide Prevention in Craigavon Northern Ireland and has a psychological suicide prevention website which is attracting large numbers around the world. In Portadown Northern Ireland, where he lives, he runs a mobile unit through the night at weekends where he and his team bring therapeutic interventions to young people at the roadside.

He regularly presents national and internationally at conferences and symposiums on Suicide Prevention and Identity and how multidisciplinary teams can increase their efficacy. He has contributed to many articles in glossy magazines and in learned journals and was an adviser to the producers of ITV series: I’m a Celebrity -get me out of here" and also was consultant to the Endemol Programme for Channel 4: Big Brother's Big Brain, where he contributed to a scientific understanding of personality processes and conflict in small group dynamics.

Arthur has been involved in post doctoral research into the effects of 5-HIAA in the brains of teenagers who try to take their own lives and he has a deep interest in psychological autopsies after completed suicides and in the attributions made for both parasuicidal and suicidal individuals. In particular his interests are in the self attributions young people make for taking their own lives. He is a member of the International Association for Suicide prevention and a member of the Irish Association of Suicidology.