Suicide

This week I followed the story of Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit going missing, just dreading  it wasn't going to end well. Sadly, I was right. In the usual press jargon: 'a body has been found.'

This week, a lot of people have been posting the number of the Suicide Helpline on twitter and Facebook. 

In fact, there are many numbers where people can get help. Here are some of them:

Samaritans -116 123

Papyrus (for young people) - 0800 068 41 41

For men - 0800 58 58 58

Childline - 0800 1111

The trouble is that suicide happens to other people. Those of us who are left to stand by watching have no power to persuade the person who feels suicidal to get help. In fact, we don't actually have the right to stop them committing suicide at all. And by the time people are ill enough to be serious about suicide, they are probably beyond our help - and beyond calling a helpline. 

It is terrible to watch. I have two experiences of suicide. One was a young father of two children. He had very serious depression. By the time I saw him, he was terribly ill. Nothing any of us said could persuade him to get help. In fact, he rejected all help offered by the NHS. The other was a relative with alcoholic depression. I wanted him committed to a mental hospital in a final attempt to save his life. The consultant told me it was very difficult to get someone committed (he was right but that didn't help) and that once my uncle was in hospital, he would just walk out because he thought we were the crazy ones. 

Clearly early intervention is the key: we need to get people to recognise the signs of mental illness and be prepared to ask for help, not just to know where to get help. 

I know it's kinda pathetic but at least we're now talking about mental health issues.