the: community people
_can turn to. Our
orientation Is the
prevention of crisis.
, The sooner a family
probleni is recognized
the better,” explains
North Shore Family
Services worker Gillan
Taylor.

A’ major orientation of the
North Shore Family Services
is providing accessible
personal counselling to
troubled teenagers. For
example, in West Vancouver
Family Services -worker
Colin Steele spends two days
a week at West.Vancouver

“We're .someone. in

Secondary, the other two

secondary’ schools, being
serviced by other Family
Services staff.

In North Vancouver
Family Services personnel
work out of schools,
churches and offices in the
Capilano Highlands,. Deep
Cove, Lynn Valley and
Lower Lonsdale areas.

“The students get used to
secing me around the school
and this makes me more
approachable,” says Steele,
a fully qualifed social
worker. He has also been
called in by the God Squad,
a counselling team of North
Shore ministers who work
with the police in crisis

situations, such as attempted
suicide.

> CRY FOR HELP

“Attempted suicide by a
teenage is a cry for help,”
says Stecle, “but the cry for
help is not always heard.”

In the last decade, the
suicide rate has increased 59
per cent for children under
15, and 236 per cent for
those 15 to 19. What ac-
counts for this rise?

“We live in a violent
society and suicide is a form
of violence,” observes
Taylor.

The folk heroes of
teenagers today display

forms .of. self-destruction on:

stage in of mass

front
audiences. —

“There’s sadism in punk
rock,” points out Steele. He
also cites how teenage rock
idol Alice Cooper hangs
himself on stage as part of
his act. Prominent show
business personalities have
also gone as far as com-
mitting suicide while yet in
their prime, such as Janis
Joplin.

The church has had a
taboo on suicide bul with the
decline of a church-going
society, the taboo has
weakened, The result has
been that it has becomé

CONTINUED ON PAGE C5

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