Bullying and its relation to suicide

This Week’s Spark – April 22, 2010

This first article has appeared before, “tailoring messages to change behavior in Gatekeepers,” I think all our messages should always be audience specific, that way they will be most effective.
This next peace mentions that “Teen bullying can be a red flag for Depression, “while I understand what Ann Haas of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention meant “that bullying and suicide should not be thought of as cause and effect.” Madelyn Gould of Columbia University spoke of a “clear association,” between bullying, suicide, depression and suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. There was an excellent program on PBS last night about bullying and suicide (hopefully they will be repeating it this month, please see it if you can)
I think bullying left uncheck by school personnel or employers, supervisors (someone in authority) then this may lead to desperate behaviors for the victim to seek relief from the bullying. I admit I’m not an expert on bullying, however (Ain mentioned it) we are hoping Kevin Epling can share some of his insight with us. I believe he is just getting back from a national conference on bullying and a good friend of MASP.
The National Conference of State Legislators has issued a brief on Teen Suicide, I find this encouraging with all the budget cuts hitting mental health, I can hope and pray that they leave enough of the “safety net” for the rest of us to survive.
Stay safe, stay connected
Larry Lewis