Talk of suicide can save lives

There are understandable concerns that media reporting of suicide encourages copycat acts, stigmatises districts and even affects property prices. And yet the media would be damned if it ignored an issue that places a huge burden on families and society. It is good therefore that we have been able to report on a two-year study that has produced a map of Hong Kong linking nearly 6,000 suicides from 2005 to 2010 with socio-economic patterns.

Suicide data is usually confined to good or bad news about overall figures, without throwing much light on trends. Now a team of academics and psychiatrists, under the Jockey Club Suicide Prevention and Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong, have created a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood breakdown of lives lost.

The research, funded by the government and the Jockey Club and published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, is like a microscope, according to suicide centre director Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai. By identifying suicide hot spots, the authorities can channel resources to tackle sometimes unique factors causing deaths and improve the district's well-being. For example, compared with western cities, there is a stronger connection in Hong Kong between suicide and money problems, particularly among men.

The report concluded that young and middle-aged men living in deprived areas were at a particularly high risk of suicide. "Deprivation comes in different forms. Some areas have more single parents. Some have high unemployment. Some have high levels of single housing. You can tailor-make support programmes to meet the challenges."

Hopefully, using this kind of approach, researchers can identify factors driving a slight increase in youth suicide and advise on measures to reverse the trend. Yip says, rightly, that stigmatisation comes from ignorance and prejudice, and raising knowledge can combat it. Keeping discussion of suicide in the open will improve understanding and help save lives.