THE STATISTICS are chilling. Forty-two'of the 170 North Shore residents who attempted suicide last year were between the age of 10 and 19. While the suicide rate for adults as remained relatively stable, suicide is now the second leading cause of teenage death. And while it is still ‘‘very rare’ for children to take their own lives, the adolescent suicide rate may have increased by as much as 300 per cent in the iast decade. On February 16 and 17, North Vancouver will be the site of a conference on adolescent suicide and the resources — or lack of them — available to combat the growing problem. To help set the stage of that conference, writer Joannie MacDonald has produced a special series of articles for the News. The first of them follows.- by JOANNE MacDONALD THEY DON’T know for sure. how many Extra Strength Tylenol pills 16-year-old Carla Smith swallowed in her home just over a year ago. Only the fortuitious arrival of her parents, who im- mediately summoned an am- bulance crew, saved Carla’s life. A year later, she speaks haltingly of her suicide at- tempt as she recalls the ex- treme despair that drove her to it. “It’s kind of hard to ex- plain,’’ she says. ‘‘I was pret- ty depressed and was in a big rut. It wasn’t just school, there were a lot of other. things behind it, like home life and other things. Basical- ly it was just the way I felt about myself. At the time when I did it, I did want to die. ed _ Carla Smith (a pseudonym used to provide anonymity for the girl and her family) felt she could. not com- municate with her family. She says they did not have time for her with her father working full-time and her mother alternating between two part-time jobs. ““We all kind of led our own separate little lives,’’ says Carla, who also found it hard to talk to her friends. “| felt my problems weren't all that big compared to theirs, because most of them had a lot of family pro- blems that were really bad. ! felt that I'd just be bothering them.’’ Twenty-four-year-old Brad Vandervoort has a different story. He is a ‘‘survivor’’ of adolescent suicide — the death of his younger brother at age 17 five years ago. His initial reaction was shock, then denial, guilt and finally anger with both socic- ty and his brother. **In some ways, | think if he had had some help and had been able to stick out the teenage years, things may have started to go together for him,’’ says Brad. **Almost everything in his life, everything was greener on the other side. He decided . > that he wanted to be a truck. — driver, do cross-country. He checked into it and was told they wouldn’t even accept him until he was 19. That seemed like a life-time away. So, in a way, he was very frustrated.”’ Brad says he did not ‘publicly admit his anger -at- his brother until he was at a support group meeting almost two years later. **Ie’s a vicious circle because I would feel angry and then | would feel guilty because I was angry at David and he was not here to defend himself,’’ says Brad. ‘‘I was angry at David for leaving the family with this and. angry that he didn’t come to me or to someone else in the family and say ‘Look, I need help.’ ”’ There was also the reaction of others to contend with, once the news of David’s death spread. Some friends rallied around, while others kept their distance. ‘*With some people, they , have a stigma that’s attached to suicide,’® says Brad. “We're labelled a lower-class family. Everyone wonders what went on in our household. | guess some peo- ple think that someone is driven to suicide rather than choosing suicide. There are some people that | did know that, since the suicide, | haven't seen. °° Whether it is the actual in- cidence of adolescent suicide or only the public reporting of it that has risen is not real- ly clear. What is clear, says Sr. Steven Scofield, a psychologist specializing in adolescent development and difficulties, is that adolescent suicide ‘‘has a lot to do with the fact that youths are really in crisis.’’ *‘Lots of parents think they have good communica. tions with their kids,’’ says Scofield. ‘‘But most of us as adults probably don’t bchave as very good models for kids about talking about feelings. As a society, we don't say | think, | feel, | wish, L hope, | need, I remember, I’m scared, and so on. And if they don’t see it around them,. in significant people they trust and admire, or at least model after, they won’t do it.”’ Scofield says all members of society — and not ‘just professionals in the field — have to share the need for in- tervention into the lives of adolescents in crisis. Even untrained people, he says, should be prepared to in- tervene at the elementary levels. - we didn’t éven believe **Until 15 or 20 years ago, that We was only kids got depressed. thought depression something that could happen to adults. We thought kids could be sad, sadness being more of a fleeting thing ... but not this on-going, lasting feeling of guilt and worthlessness,”’ Scofield says. ‘‘There are three H’s in suicide that we can talk about: helplessness, hopelessness and haplessness. When a person is feeling all three of those, watch out for this person. They are really, really vulnerable. They are really at risk of doing something foolish or im- pulsive or deadly.”’ These days, Brad is dealing with his brother’s death with the help of the members of a splinter group which has broken away from the core support group at SAFER (Suicide Attempt, Foliow-up, Education and Research). It’s a Vancouver-based group that counsels those who at- tempt suicide and the members of the families of those who are successful. The CONTINUED ON PAGE A9 At this rate, your place will look great Pius Bonus Gift Certificates and a 25% discount on General Paint products! VANCOUVER: 1030 West Broadway 736 9166 2106 West Broadway 736 3761 3395 West Broadway 736 7451 1380 Commercial 25) 1721 2380 West 41st Avenuc 26) 5152 Moving may not be the best way to have your dream home Improving can be a better answer. So that's why VanCity has created the Home Improvement Loan Sale Now you can make your present home a castle without it costing a king's ransOm. VanCity has a number of ways to make it easy. 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