Her name is Laura Burke, and if you do not know her or what she does already, you will by the time you finish reading this blog. But before you go any further, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23a18HKYLW4. Ok, so here we go.

 

Recently it was my privilege to present Laura with the first ever youth award in the Champions of Mental Health Awards history. And she is a worthy recipient. She has worked hard to get well and to stay well. She takes her challenges head on and addresses them. She does not look for pity or solace she looks for recognition of her strengths. In short, she fell down, she got up, she dusted herself off and she began all over again. Kudos!

 

I am not sure if this is what the legion of resilience researchers are talking about or not. It seems that not a day goes by that I do not read about a new program or a new direction that will transform the lives of young people by enhancing their resilience. Usually this is achieved (or more properly said to have been achieved without the solid evidence we need to critically determine the outcomes) by some kind of learning of how to be resilient, taught no doubt by a well meaning and well paid human services provider.

 

And what about people like Laura. How did she become so resilient? Maybe she had it in her all along. Maybe everyone does. Maybe we need to work at ensuring environments support the development of that. Maybe we need allow young people to fall down gently, so that they can learn to stand up, dust themselves off and start all over again.

 

--Stan

Today I read about yet another suicide intervention strategy, launched with media fanfare in the UK. According to the BBC News, an NGO in the UK called the Samaritans has now launched a Facebook scan for people who discuss ideas about suicide http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12667343. If they identify someone at risk they will contact police and ask them to go and intervene.

 

Apparently this idea was in response to a suicide tragedy in which a young person died by suicide after posting their intent on Facebook. Is this a good idea? I do not know. Will it work? I have no idea. Will it have the opposite effect of maybe encouraging suicide in vulnerable youth? I do not know. Will this become the focus of hoaxes and “crying wolf”? I have no idea.

 

On the one hand, it could be argued that addressing youth suicide through social media makes sense because that is where youth “live”.  On the other hand, it could be argued that such Facebook vigilance will lead to more harm than good – either through “copy-cat” activities or to hoaxes that lead to police “interventions”. 

 

Suicide is an emotional issue. Not every good idea turns out to be a good idea. Sometimes good ideas have negative unintended consequences. However, it seems that the cat is out of the bag on this activity. I hope that someone is doing a careful and appropriate evaluation of what is happening. That alone will give us an idea if this idea is worth pursuing or not.

 

In the meantime, I would really like to see us all put into place those things that we know actually do work. This includes: limiting access to lethal means (such as controlling access to guns); training all health care providers to better identify and treat those people at risk; providing “gatekeeper” training for teachers and others who spend a good amount of time with young people – so that they can identify those at risk for mental disorder (still the single largest risk factor for suicide) and seamlessly refer them for the care that they need.

 

It seems pretty simple to me. Let us do what we know works. Not do what we know does not work. And, if we do not know, let us study it properly so that we can find out.

 

--Stan