72-Hour Observations

Weekend News

Army to establish mental health board
Since 2003, 15 Army recuiters have committed suicide, prompting the armed service to form a suicide prevention board. Their task will be to study the mental health of recruiters, one of the Army's most stressed-out job classes. Read more about it at The Fayetteville Observer.

Insurance and mental health
A study published in the December 24/31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that psychiatric patients who insurance with a lower share of cost tended to get treatment more frequently. Read more about it the Washington Post.

But if they were in Afghanistan...
Mental health patients in that country are numerous, according to experts, but treatment is hard to come by. So Afghanistan sends its mentally ill to feed on bread, water and pepper at shrines, or chains them to trees. Read more at UPI.com.Sphere: Related Content
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Veterans Suicide Hotline: 55,000 Served

As if there was ever any question that military service can take a profound psychological toll on those who serve our country, these statistics released by CBS News today offered a sobering reminder.

The Department of Veterans Affairs suicide hot line has logged some 55,469 calls in the first six months of 2008. At the beginning of the year, about 21,000 people had used the service. CBS also obtained data showing where the calls originated. Texas came in first place with 2102 calls, followed by California with 2088 calls, then Florida with 1250 calls, and in fourth place Massachusetts with 1051 calls.

Of the total calls, 22,044 identified themselves as vets. About 2966 identified themselves as family or friends of veterans.

Whether or not we agree with the military actions taken by the United States, the men and women serving our country deserve every bit of support we can possibly give them.

PHOTO: SERGEI KRASSII

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Suzy's Law: Parents Turn Grief Into Action

You've read in this blog last week about Kendra's Law and Laura's Law. Today, I'm writing to raise awareness of a like-titled piece of legislation, Suzy's Law.

Photo by Georgios Wollbrecht
HR 940, as it's officially known, proscribes using interstate commerce to publish suicide promotionals, such as how to kill yourself quickly and effectively, how to write a powerful suicide note, how to get the material means for suicide and how to delay others finding out you're dead.

Who Was Suzy Gonzales?
A resident of Red Bluff, California, a quaint town in the far reaches of Northern California, Suzanne Gonzales was a bright and fun-loving 19-year-old girl with a stellar future ahead of her. She was a national Hispanic scholar finalist and had a full scholarship to Florida State University. To quote the Suzy's Law web site,

"She loved to set her own style and was not afraid to march to her own beat. She was known as the girl wearing glasses with no lenses and hand-painted colorful shoes, and riding a red scooter carrying the stuffed two-headed cat she made herself. She loved polka-dot dresses and ska music, and she was a joy and bright light to be around."

That bright light was about to be tragically extinguished. Suzy became depressed while attending Florida State. She tried to talk to her boyfriend about the increasing thoughts of suicide she experienced, but he told her she needed help.

So Suzy turned to the Internet and found multiple resources encouraging her to kill herself and providing her with the know-how to get the job done. They taught her how to pose as a jeweler to buy potassium cyanide. They gave her instructions on how to send time-delayed emails that would go out after her death. They taught her how to lie to her psychiatrist so she wouldn't get hospitalized. On and on it went.

Finally, on March 23, 2003, Suzy checked into a Florida motel and ingested a lethal dose of potassium cyanide.

Parents Turn Grief Into Action
Mike and Mary Gonzales were devastated by their daughter's suicide, but decided to take action. Suzy's Law was initially introduced in February 2007 by Rep. Wally Herger.

Under the Suzanne Gonzales Suicide Prevention Act of 2007, an individual who uses the Internet or other interstate commerce to teach a suicidal person how to commit suicide or provides them the resources to do it would be guilty of a crime punishable by fines and up to five years in prison. If the recipient actuall suicides, the penalty goes from five years to life in prison.

The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. It has been in limbo ever since.

So Mike and Mary are going to Washington, DC, this week to bring Suzy's Law out into the daylight for support and, hopefully, action. If you want to get involved, you can read the full text of the law, urge your Congressperson to co-sponsor the bill, and tell your friends.

Here's wishing you the best, Mike and Mary!
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What's Next? Plastic Knives?

San Francisco's Suicide Bridge Dilemma

The debate is heating up in San Francisco over how to prevent suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. Since the Bridge opened in 1937, 1,250 people have ended it all there, 39 of them just last year. This latest round of controversy was sparked by a report from the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District, which offered up ways to tackle the problem. The possibilities? Install a steel net 20 feet below the Bridge's sidewalk. Change out the four-foot pedestrian railings to 12-foot ones. The cost? $50 million.

According to this story from the National Post, a good deal of San Franciscans favor the report's sixth option: do nothing. It may sound callous in some respects, but I happen to agree with this group.

The fact is the $50 million could be put to much better use in funding mental health programs to render suicide unthinkable in the first place. Otherwise, we simply eliminate a method to complete the act. If someone is desperate enough to take the plunge from the Golden Gate Bridge, I can assure you they would find another method if this modern marvel wasn't an option.
If we begin making the means of a suicide plan off limits, where do we stop? Background checks and 10-day waiting periods before purchasing cutlery? Yes, yes, an extreme example, I know. But $50 million is an extreme amount of money to throw at a problem when it's already too late.

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