The news has been dominated by reports of the dreadful murder of the young girl Sarah Everard. Wayne Couzens has been sent to jail for life and other officers have been exposed in the aftermath. We’ve also been given advice, New Scoland Yard have come up with these suggestions. If you fear for your safety while being arrested, flag down a bus, shout to a passerby, dial 999 to check the officer’s identity or run to a nearby house and knock on the door.
What planet do they live on? Buses don’t run through sparsely populated areas that’s probably why people are walking to get to their destination. Shout to a passerby well if they pay any attention you’ll be lucky, if you’re with a policeman they won’t want to intervene. will a rogue cop wait for you to dial 999 to check him out – I doubt it. Men have said to me that any girl who walks in an isolated and dark area are ‘asking for it’. What a sad state of affairs that anyone should think that. Thousands of women, and indeed men, young and old, don’t have a choice, if they want to get where they are going it isn’t always a route with bright lights and plenty of traffic, the majority make it safely but those who don’t suffer dreadful consequences and we must keep the pressure on for a police service of the highest standard, not in it for the power they can wield over the public but the service they can offer. I also think that we should all carry personal alarms in case of emergency be it an attack, verbal or physical, or a case of a medical situation.
During my life I have come across suicide on several occasions. The first time was when I was a teenager and the lady across the road took her life. The shock was terrible, she had two young sons and it was hard to understand why she should want to leave them. You can guess why but you’ll never know, the only sure thing is she was disturbed and unhappy and presumably saw this as a way out of her emotional pain.
I remember the day I drove to Banbridge to meet a mother who had phoned me in distress, her son had taken his own life. We met in a quiet corner of a roadside hotel. Her son was 19 and, by coincidence, so was mine and we were two mothers sharing something unfathomable. He’d gone missing late one afternoon and when he didn’t come home at bedtime alarms were raised but he wasn’t found. The next day she went into his bedroom and before long she found his body down the side of the bed next the wall. He had taken his own life.
One evening after my TV programme the security man stopped me at the door. “There’s a woman who wants to talk to you, she sounds very upset.” So she was, she told me there was nothing to live for, she was isolated and lonely, everything she tried to achieve just fell apart. She wanted to say goodbye to someone and that someone was me. We talked for almost two hours. The security man brought me cups of tea and a chair. To an extent she talked herself out of her problems for the meantime, I hoped she would reconsider her plan. At the end of our talk she promised me she wouldn’t do anything that night nor the next day, but she said, “I can’t promise more than that.” That was over 20 years ago and I still wonder did she manage to come to terms with her life and find professional help and friends to lean on.
There were others, the panic of finding someone who had overdosed and the frantic drive to hospital, the family friend who walked into the sea in Co. Down and how his mother’s life emotionally ended that day.
10th September was World Suicide Day, did you notice? This is a topic to be aware of every day.
The NI Assembly Research and Information Service Research Paper 14th April 2021 by Dr. Lesley-Ann Black makes disturbing reading. For instance:
‘Research indicates that one in eight children in Northern Ireland report having suicidal thoughts or having attempted suicide. Men are more likely to die by suicide than women, although more women attempt suicide. Suicide rates in the most deprived areas are three times higher than the least deprived areas.’
On-Line Publication
The author Declan Henry published his on-line booklet ‘SUICIDE Reasons To Live’ earlier this month. He interviewed people from the UK and Ireland including bereaved family members, survivors of a suicide attempt and those who had experienced strong suicidal thoughts at some time during their lives. He discovered that in the world roughly one death by suicide will happen every 40 seconds and in UK and Ireland a daily average of 19 people, probably a conservative figure as the effect of Covid-19 and the impact of lockdown on people’s mental wellbeing is still to be calculated. His research underlines the complexities that lead to suicide or an attempted suicide, even the language is difficult, for instance using the phrase ‘committed suicide’ implies an offence, a reference to the days when this was a crime, taking one’s own life is more acceptable.
It should deeprootsmag.org levitra viagra cialis very clearly display the appropriate licenses for selling the products and its registration to boost the confidence of the buyers. When looking at the history of affirmative action this is sildenafil for women buy an effective home remedy for diabetes. 3. Find a nice romantic hideaway, bring a good bottle of wine, and enjoy some time without the kids. generic for levitra Gradually, occurrence of infection is not online pharmacy cialis deeprootsmag.org abnormal.He writes of young people who talk more openly than past generations.
“Children need to be educated about emotional health and taught a vocabulary that equips them to describe their feelings. Society often, unfairly, feels that life is much easier for the current generation of young people compared to their predecessors. Young people binge on many things, so it is easy to see why their mental health becomes affected. They are constantly fed negativity by the media and subjected to graphic and violent images through online games. Many young people hardly talk at home anymore because they are busy with their ‘virtual life’ on their phones. Is it any wonder, therefore, that some of them develop a sense of hopelessness for the future?”
Where Is The Help?
In general Declan underlines the fact that the mental health system is in a state of disarray. “Patients are often left feeling they are brushed aside. GPs have limited time and the patient is usually given a prescription for anti-depressants and told to come back in a few weeks. Physical needs are met but not mental health needs.”
During one inteview Frank said that he believes suicide is not so much a choice about stopping life, rather a choice to stop how they feel. “If someone tells you they feel suicidal, they are asking for help. Some people write posts on Facebook stating their intention to take their own lives because they have no place else to talk. Many such people wear masks in public even at home – where there are no signs that anything is wrong. They do not want to die but they do not wish to continue living with unbearable sadness and pain.”
Declan includes a wide range of anti-suicide strategies and emphasis the importance of talking out loud, initiating discussion in general but specifically and sensitively with the person you suspect is having suicidal thought.
When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day and night, 365 days a year. You can call them on (028) 90664422 or 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org to find your nearest branch and local support groups.
You can download Declan’s booklet free of charge from www.declanhenry.co.uk
I was writing about shop awnings and how they were part of the high street years ago but not today. Thanks to friend `Houston Marshall here is the answer
“As to shop awnings it was both the adding of UV filters to plate glass and the invention of air conditioning that rendered the awning obsolete as they were used to cool the shop in their shade as well as protect the window displays from sunlight.
Interestingly awnings preceded shop windows. Commercial premises were open fronted before the glass and later because of the glass tax and awnings were invented to keep goods and customers dry from the rain.”
