Youth Matters

Download Youth matters - a cry for help

Published in 2000

This report examines self-harm and those at risk of dying. A survey asked young people about their views on self-harm, what they think about self-harming and what they think of othes that have self harmed.

From the introduction...

Self-harm is more common than most of us think. Nearly half the population know someone who has self-harmed and every thirty minutes a teenager cuts or burns themselves or takes an overdose as the only way they have to communicate their distress. But tragically it is a cry for help that is often not heard. The stigma of self-harm and suicide can prevent people seeking help and can also prevent people offering the support needed to save that person’s life.

Samaritans offer support 24 hours a day, but is anyone else listening? This is a question we asked in a survey of people’s attitudes to self-harm. The results showed that there is still a long way to go in raising awareness that people who self-harm need above all to be heard. The risk of dying from suicide is a hundred times greater for those who self-harm than for the general population. Why? Because if their cries for help go unheard, the struggle to live can become too difficult and suicide can be seen as the only way out.

Youth suicide is a growing problem. In 1998 in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, almost twice as many young men aged 25 to 34 years died from suicide than in 19833. The number of suicides among women aged 25 to 34 years is now at its highest rate ever per 100,000 of population3. Amongst young women aged 15 to 24 years, suicides have increased by 15% since 1997.
 
Youth Matters 2000 is Samaritans’ year-long campaign to get more young people at risk of suicide to seek help and get the issues of youth self-harm, depression and suicide onto everyone’s agenda. But this can only happen with your support. The government recently identified suicide as one of its top health priorities and it is only by working in partnership with government, the business and voluntary sectors and the local community that Samaritans can achieve those goals.

Samaritan volunteers throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland reach out to young people at risk every day in schools, hospitals, prisons and on the streets, offering time and space to talk through feelings and help work out the way forward. It takes time, commitment and active listening skills to be a Samaritan but without your time and money more cries for help would go unheard.