Reporting suicides - The tragedy of the dying and media insensitivity

By: Eugenia Ntekor

The past few weeks have seen a lot of media reportage of suicides in Ghana. It started off with a suicide of a KNUST student, University of Ghana student, a 16 year old, a driver, a 12 year old and a woman who reportedly died by suicide near a clinic in the Eastern region.

More than 50 research studies worldwide have found that certain types of news coverage can increase the likelihood of suicide in vulnerable individuals. These studies show that the way media covers suicide can influence behaviour negatively or positively by encouraging people to seek help- if there are any resources available. In the case of Ghana, resources are not available and therefore behaviour is influenced more negatively. There is a significant risk of suicides increasing when stories explicitly describe the suicide method and headlines are dramatized.

Research shows that when this occurs, there is an increased likelihood of suicide contagion (copycat suicides). Inappropriate reporting of suicide is leading to imitative or imitational behaviours and contributing to other suicides. The media is not helping by showing explicit photos of people who have completed suicide. This sensationalising of suicides must stop as it is not helping the vulnerable who are already contemplating suicide.

The most interesting I have seen on social media is a childlike drawing of a man hanging with an inscription ‘suicide is not an option’. Who is this meant for? Children or adults? Are we viewing the recent spate of suicides as a public health issue ? Are we weighing up the benefits of these images against the justification of public interest or do we see this as another story to make a bit of money? Whatever your answers are to these questions, could we please note the following ‘do nots’, picked from my observation of media reportage recently :

• Do not place suicide stories on the cover of newspapers- it is distressing and insensitive. Think about their family and private grieving

• Do not portray suicides as heroic.

• Do not say ‘suicide ended pain’. People need to be alive to feel free from pain.

• Do not show people hanging- it is distressing and insensitive. Please avoid dramatic emotional images and footage.

• Be sensitive to words that you use in your story- ‘She suffered a broken heart’.

• Do not report content of a suicide note.

• The term committed suicide is not accurate. People commit crime. Suicide is not a crime. ’Died by suicide’ or ‘completed suicide’ may be more appropriate.

• Do not use ‘successful suicide’. It is extremely insensitive to label suicide as ‘successful’.

• Do not use ‘epidemic’ in suicide. It is rising, use ‘rise’.

It is worth noting that the number one cause for over 90% of the people who die by suicide have clinical depression or a similar mental illness when they die. Most of the people who choose to end their lives do so for complex reasons.

Research has also shown that many people who die by suicide have an underlying psychiatric disorder such as depressive symptoms linked to the feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. We all feel down at times but there is a difference between feeling down and depression.

Depression is characterized by longer deeper feeling of desperation, despondency, overwhelmed by life’s situation and thoughts that suicide is the only solution. Depression causes symptoms of loss of interest, despair that interferes with a person’s life. A number of things could determine how vulnerable a person is to suicidal ideations and behaviour.

These include:

• Life history- Traumatic experiences, sexual or physical abuse, parental neglect etc.

• Serious mental ill health- such as schizophrenia.

• Lifestyle- drug or alcohol abuse.

• Employment- Poor job security, money problems.

• Relationships- isolation, significant break-ups, death.

• Family history- history of suicides in family.

• Stressful events- May push a person to the edge.

And finally, let us offer suicide prevention information and give people who are suicidal resources they need. Our mental health services are too poorly equipped to deal the current situation but this is a discussion for another time.

Thank you.