Favorite Youth Suicide Prevention Public Service Announcements

From www.stopsuicide.ch, Switzerland

The media can play a powerful role in the tragedy of suicide or..its prevention.

There are some well documented effects: The "Werther" effect is named after the hapless Goethe hero and the observation of suicide clusters after the publication of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" in 1774.  The "Papageno" effect, by contrast, is named after the Magic Flute character who chooses an alternative to suicide with a little help from his friends. This term is applied to particularly thoughtful media representations of suicide: non-sensationalistic, non-reductionistic and emphasizing the link between mental health struggles and suicide, as well as the existence of concrete resources for strugglers. A famous example of this occured after the death of Kurt Cobain, which was covered particularly carefully by the media.

In theory, the power of media, traditional and social, can be harnested to extend far beyond the Papageno effect whereby suicide clusters are averted following famous suicides.

It could be used to prevent suicide on a larger scale.

Related to this potential: a couple of my favorite media campaigns/public service announcements from Europe:

"Je tiens à toi" the campaign from Swiss Stop Suicide, released Sept 10th, 2013 (at the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day) is particularly clever. The theme is a little note inserted in a hoodie or in a school bag with four little words. The translation in English does not fully render the effect: the words mean both "I care about you" but also evoke "holding" because the French word tenir means to hold. So, those four words conjure the communication of connection, caring, holding...all rolled up in a message that is youth appropriate: tender but not effusive.

"The Silence is killing us" is another powerful message from British CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). Late 2012, images of young men from diverse ethnicities were released widely in London with an educational caption reminding all that suicide is a number one killer of young urban males and that alternatives to silence can save lives. The theme is illustrated brilliantly in this animated poem. 

Please share,

Till Later,

Anne