Suicide Prevention Short Film

by Colleen Mon Sep 24, 2007 15:02

Suicide is such a tragedy, good to see young political activists tackling the issue head on.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Sep 24, 2007 18:41

I am moved tonight as I access the Ogra Shinn Fein initiative to tackle the problem of Suicide, particularly in our young people throughout Ireland.

The site is 'You Tube' and the short film is suffice to invoke the senses using sight, colour, scent, rational, sensation, memories, vision, inspiration, emotiona.....hopefully imploding a positive image on the minds of proping people.

The 'Wall' in the North, is a novel idea and could gain similar significance in the South......Let us seek a 'Wall'. One of the most significant sites i have ever viewed is the 'The Wall' in America about Vietnam....Watching people carefully use the tracing paper to capture the name of their lost loved one.

The Irish Independent today had an article from Professor Patricia Casey in Psychiatric section, the Mater. Professor wrote of the virtues of a dog viz a viz stress, mental illness and the related. It is worth reading. Apparently, dogs are in our history 15,000 years..

I am glad to hear about the provisions for those in trouble.....May I go a stage further and suggested bookshops like Easons, Hodgis and Figgis and Waterstones, where I like to visit on a Sunday.

As I paid for books, before me were books by various Philosophers......the title that caught my attention, was from the Penguin Books, Great Ideas, section. Written in the 1700 period by David Hume:-

On Suicide

'I believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping'

The challenge remains 'threw away life while it was worth keeping'

Let us think of the downside perhaps ........ what makes us think it is not worth staying alive

Addiction, Poverty ?, Individualism is OK just different, Unhappiness, Competiveness versus nature....to name but a view. Love is often not enough.

Michelle

Quotation: George Orwell (1903-50, British Novelist, essayist and social commentator

Truth Telling (appropriate as Mahon Tribunal retires to decide.....!!!)
'During the times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary event'

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Sep 28, 2007 20:05

September draws to a close, October steers us towards winter and our innerselves, our trials and tribulations.

L'Esprit, is so often needed, in the times of dark night of the soul.

Not anyone person deserves to die as a consequence of the despair that accompanies suicide.

I have cut out of the paper a photo of a pretty, young, slender, blond headed 15 year old, just loving her little Jack Russell pup. Nobody would ever envisage from this photo, her destiny.

A talented student....she had a row with her mother and father....and then ended her life in the New Forest......The photo of her middle aged Mum and Dad, is one of pain and suffering, shock and the question why our little girl (or boy, or child, or friend, or stranger, or co-worker, any human being) could sadly end their own lives.

The row in retrospect is so silly, it was about her parents stopping her going horseriding....

This narrative can apply to anyone. Let us think and be aware.

Today as I sat for coffee with my Jack Russell...we talked about the inadequacies in the Health services. We were opposite to Baggot Street Hospital - how cold a place this is when you have mental health problems and ask for help! Like so many of the medical establishments, the categories determine, who benefits and usually it is not the vulnerable. Those who are homeless, suffer from mental illness, or drug addiction.

It is this time only one year ago when a distraught mother, with two young children went to their hospital for help.......a mother and two children permitted to leave the hospital in distress. She went to the Sea and she took her two children with her into the waves and they passed, I hope to some place a lot kinder and with compassion I hope.

It is only one month since Ireland hosted a worldside suicide conference in Kerry.......I am getting wary of this research and the absence of funding allocated to same. Why can't we have more transparency, accountability and yes, I think ethics about people who 'utilise' the vulnerable to highlight 'Theses'........We need action at grass roots level. We need so called educators taking an attitude of Take Responsibility (refer Harvard Philosphophy)...... and deal hands on with why so many children are hitting psychiatric problems and dropping out of school. Why do these professionals deem the 'advice and comments from the patients and from literary sources, as inconsequential'. Am I too cynical when I say the conferences, the fun, the meeting of friends, the snobberies, etc. predominate the agenda.......Who is losing out?

Tonight - a psychiatrist who allegedly killed her 16 year old daughter sits in Mountjoy prison females. I wonder where the professions stand here. What supports she actually has from family and colleagues. This is a sad incident, but what it does say, is that we are all human beings. It is not money or profession that determines our weakness to succumb to raise the hand, the temper to bring about murder!!!

We need emotional intelligence on our curriculum. We need studies like the Leonardo study and youth violence across a spectrum of countries on the school curriculums. We need people to not be afraid to take a chance and use some wisdom to prevent harmful outcomes. Are we really, too rapped up in cotton wool, to really know how young people feel?

Durkheim the famous socialist spoke of Anomie......a suicide....? A thought pehaps as to why the despair?

One last point. On a bus one day, a teenager with his grandmother were beside me. The Gran was asking questions. She asked What would you do with John.......he replied.....'I would pay to take him out'

Steve Biko (1946-77) South African anti-apartheid activist, murdered in police custody
'If you want to say something radical, you should dress conservative'

or for exploratory reading

A Well trained dog
'Circus dogs jump when the train cracks the whip, but the really well drained dog is the one that turns sommersaults when there is no whip'
George Orwell (1903-1950, British Novelist, essayist, and social commentator'

Michelle

by Accidents? Fri Oct 19, 2007 22:11

Michelle,
As you know your facts and very much on the ball as well as intelligent I think you should set up a email on more about this suicide thing. Since it;s so serious and having just watched the U Tube on Suicide with O S F you could get positive results. Keep us posted and Thanks

by Gothic Sat Oct 20, 2007 22:04

I love the suicide threads. Really & sincerely I do. Everytime I read one of our many suicide threads on indymedia ireland, I know Irish people are saving lives. We can't really say I saved your life for socialism, anarchism, the nation of Eire or the heavenly father! . Yet we all agree :-
* we want less suicide amongst the young
* we want less of the deeper social framework issues which brings humanity at its most hormonal to contemplating or putting an end to a life by he or she credited to be living it..,
* & we seem to have realised without "party", "creed", "class", "ethnic" or blaa blaa labels :-

everytime we talk openly about suicide we save a life.
We mightn't know why but we seem to agree it's a good idea.

Brill. no?

here's a link to a very serious thesis exploring the link between US country music & suicide rates by Stephen Stack & Jim Gundlach. Their research work linking country & western radio listening with suicidal thoughts & alienated personality disorders has in the ten years since it was first filed proved a real resource to those who worry about how much Johnny Cash listening is enough or too much.
http://www.uta.edu/depken/ugrad/3318/music-suicide.pdf

Let's save a life!
They'll be grand in a few years. Let's give it to them.

by Michelle Clarke Thu Mar 27, 2008 13:51

Today Console are involved in fundraising. It is Thursday 27th March 2007.

There is a video on this site.......and for those hurting or just thnking, I would suggest taking the time to watch it and recommend it.

Michelle Clarke

ps I posted last night on this site but it appears, as often happens, gone! I note that other writers like S. Crudden and Fred Johnston have encountered similar problems.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Jusdtice and Ethics Sat Mar 29, 2008 00:12

Each fundraising is that .......and there are numbers that receive funds.......but continuity is the question.

What can be done?

Michelle

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:55

Ogra Sinn Fein made the entry on an earlier posting. Several people replied and with the integrity their film inspires.

Youth - Amy Winehouse singing on the radio en route to rehabilitation, hurt and pain, addictions, family strive and now throw in the hardships associated with recession.

Let us all know, we can save a life and never even know.

Be alert.......be supportive to rehabilitation, psychology centres, guidance for all people in this often cold hearted world.

So much we do not hear of pain, yet signs exist. Several weeks ago, early a.m. a body was found in the canal. People gathered and left and the 'humanity' drifted away. A body lost to anonymity maybe but a human being also and most likely in pain and anguish. The despair proved too much.

Henry Vaughan
'The Retreat'
O how I long to travel back
And tread again that ancient track!
That I might once more reach that plain
Where first I left my glorious train.

For me its about memory but sometime memories overwhelm us and it becomes necessary to earnestly seek out new mysteries in every day.........

Corita Adams wrote
'Flowers grow out of dark moments'

Michelle

by SherwinJTB Thu Apr 08, 2010 16:06

It's interesting that media attention can play either a positive or negative role on the overall acceptance of this issue. Public awareness is quite a challenge. It's daunting just thinking about putting all the responsibility on one individual. Working as a global community will make things easier for us all.