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Parents and teachers
should discuss suicide openly

THE ISSUE A study has confirmed that talking with teenagers about suicide will not encourage them to consider it.

MENTAL health experts have known for some time that talking with teenagers about suicide will not cause them to consider taking their own lives, contrary to popular belief. A new study affirming that knowledge should dispel any concerns by parents or school officials about whether to counsel vulnerable teenagers in Hawaii schools in order to reduce suicide attempts.

The state Department of Health reported last week that surveys in five of the past dozen years have shown that 10.1 percent to 13.4 percent of Hawaii high school students said they had tried to kill themselves in the previous year, compared with national averages ranging from 7.7 percent to 8.8 percent. Hawaii's overall youth suicide rate is about the same as the national average.

Those national rates are themselves troubling: Each year, more than 3 million youngsters ages 15 to 19 think seriously about committing suicide, 1.7 million try it, more than half the attempts require medical attention and about 1,600 attempts end in death. A study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that intervention and counseling could reduce those numbers.

The Star-Bulletin and the media generally refrain from reporting suicides because of concern that publication would plant the idea in the minds of vulnerable people. That policy is supported by the results of a 1987 campaign in Austria: Following three years when journalists covered the deaths of people who jumped in front of trains in Vienna's subway system, journalists stopped reporting the incidents for six months and the suicide and attempt rates dropped by more than 80 percent.

Some people have concluded that refraining from mentioning suicide must have the same positive effect. However, the JAMA study by Madelyn Gould, a researcher at Columbia University and New York Psychiatric Institute, found that asking troubled youngsters about any suicidal impulses appears to ease their distress and might make some of them less likely to try to commit suicide. The study consisted of observing the behavior of suburban New York high schools after students were asked suicide-related questions at various stages.

The Lingle administration should implement a campaign recommended by the Health Department aimed at increasing public awareness that "lives can be saved through public understanding that suicides and suicidal behaviors are preventable, and that individuals and groups can play a significant role in suicide prevention."

In high schools, teachers should be trained in identifying early signs of suicidal behavior and in recognizing when to intervene and refer students to counseling. Research has shown that warning signs are given in more than 80 percent of suicides.