RE: [asa] Society Ignoring Serious Boy Problems

> The ratio of volunteers to paid staff across the organisation is 236:1.
> The national average ratio amongst other charities is estimated at 34:1.

Impressive. I had no idea, never heard of the Samaritans as a group. Keep up
the good work. Given the growing secularization of Europe, do you witness
too, as a part of this service?

At least in the USA, females attempt suicide quite a bit more frequently
than males, and males complete suicide more often than males. This is due
presumably to the more lethal and violent means that males use compared to
females. Rate of depression higher in females. Males (presumably) more
impulsive.

James

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Iain Strachan
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 2:02 PM
To: James Patterson
Cc: ASA
Subject: Re: [asa] Society Ignoring Serious Boy Problems

James,

You may be interested to compare the uk figures which you can get from
the Samaritans:

http://www.samaritans.org/PDF/SamaritansInfoResourcePack2008.pdf

Tables 17 onwards give the relevant data. It seems to bear out the
observation that suicides are more prevalent among males (11 per
100,000 in 2005) than females (3 per 100,000) for age 15-25 (UK and
ROI).

From what I've picked up as a volunteer at the Samaritans, I believe
it's the case that though there are more suicides among males, that
females are more prone to depression and mental health issues.

The tables also show interestingly that suicide rates have declined
significantly since 1995, from 17 per 100,000 (boys 15-25) in 1995.

However, mental health support in the UK is absolutely abysmal, and
many mentally ill people rely on the Samaritans, which is
volunteer-led, because they can't get proper support from the local
health authorities. It is a sobering thought that a group of amateurs
(admittedly ones who are carefully selected and highly trained) are a
vital component of the mental health support in my country.

Samaritans also offers and email support service
(jo@samaritans.org.uk), which receives emails from all over the world.
 Many of our email contacts are from the USA, so I would gather that
the service we offer in this way (non-religious, completely
confidential, and non-judgmental) is something that is quite unique.

We are also now growing an SMS text support service, though I'd guess
this would be restricted to UK.

Anyway, I hope you find the information in the link to be useful.

Iain

On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 1:27 PM, James
Patterson<james000777@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I can speak to this, it's what I do for a living. One of my main hats is
as
> an emergency psychiatrist. The suicide rate, whether in boys or girls,
> starts being a problem in adolescents. However, this is just a symptom of
> the cultural "avalanche" that has been the past 50 years.
>
>
>
> http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/04all.pdf
>
>
>
> http://www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/04all.pdf
>
>
>
> Suicide and homicide rates are often in the top three causes of deaths for
> folks 10-45.
>
>
>
> The average patient that presents in my psychiatry crisis unit is from a
> broken, non-nuclear family, has suffered some form of abuse or neglect,
> abuses or is dependent on drugs or alcohol, has not completed their
> education, is unemployed, has a significant history of violence and/or
legal
> problems, AND on top of that, may very well have a "true mental health"
> issue, like major depression or bipolar disorder.
>
>
>
> The first report of major increases in mental health crises was from the
> 80s. The APA's report here:
>
>
http://archive.psych.org/edu/other_res/lib_archives/archives/tfr/tfr200201.p
df
>
> is illuminating. It's 101 pages long - read page 5 for why there is a need
> for a task force. This was published in 2002.
>
>
>
> I've been managing the Crisis Unit for the past 7 years, but we have stats
> for the past 12 years. In that time, the population of our community has
> increased 8%. The increase in our patient population has increased by >
> 200%, and the majority of that is in the past 5 years. The slope of the
line
> is going up.the rate is increasing. There's not that many more
people.people
> are getting sicker.
>
>
>
> The APA report, on page 5, states that "Deinstitutionalization and later
> efforts at cost containment including managed care have tended to place
more
> fragile patients in the community." While this is true,
> deinstitutionalization ended in Louisiana decades ago. The vast majority
of
> patients I see are not from institutions nor are they in need of
> institutionalization. They are the product of the decline in social and
> moral values in our society, the product of radical feminism, the product
of
> sexual freedom (this really begin in the 50's with the Kinsey reports) and
> drug use, and the result that all of that has had on the nuclear family.
>
>
>
> I could go on.I just recently presented on this topic here where I work,
and
> am writing a manuscript on it.
>
>
>
> James Patterson, Shreveport
>
>
>
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
> Behalf Of Dave Wallace
> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 4:34 PM
> To: ASA
> Subject: [asa] Society Ignoring Serious Boy Problems
>
>
>
> Boys' suicide crisis?
>
> Another serious problem is suicide rates, Kleinfeld points out.
>
> In her review, she cites data from the National Center for Health
Statistics
> to show the "alarming" suicide rate among boys. From 1995 to 2005, the
rate
> of suicide among 20 to 24 year-old boys was 20.7 suicides per 100,000,
while
> the rate for girls was just 3.5 per 100,000. Among 15 to 19 year olds, the
> rates were 12.5 per 100,000 for boys and 2.8 per 100,000 for girls.
>
> And the difference between the gender suicide rates is rising. "In 1933
the
> young male suicide rate was 1.54 times higher than for young females. In
> 2005 the male rate was 4.63 times higher than the female rate," Kleinfeld
> said.
>
> http://www.livescience.com/culture/090701-boys-issues.html
>
> :-) I assume this study must be using a completely bogus methodology as
most
> feminists north of the 49th parallel would totally disagree. :-P
>
> Dave W
>
> ps my comments were black humour
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with "unsubscribe
> asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.

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