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Showing posts with label Suicide Prevention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suicide Prevention. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
How to Help Those Considering Suicide

Saturday, February 25, 2017
Montana Resolution Addresses "Mistaken Assumption That Suicide Is a Rational Response to Disability"
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Representative Brad Tschida |
Until recently, the Montana Strategic Suicide Prevention Plan was considering assisted suicide of the terminally ill as a separate issue from suicide prevention. The active disability community in Montana, however, has been vocal on the need for suicide prevention services for individuals with disabilities. . . . . Individuals with disabilities have a right to responsive suicide prevention services.
There is a specific recommendation to "address . . . the mistaken assumption that suicide is a rational response to disability."
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
People With Disabilities Are a High Risk Group for Suicide; Legal Assisted Suicide Discussed as a Contributing Factor.
By Margaret Dore
Thank you Stephen Mendelsohn, of Second Thoughts Connecticut, for providing this important
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Stephen Mendelsohn |
The State of Connecticut Suicide Prevention Plan for 2020 includes people with disabilities and chronic health conditions as a high-risk group (similar to military veterans or the LGBT community) and discusses assisted suicide as a possible contributing factor to the problem. The Plan states:
Until recently, the [Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board] CTSAB was considering assisted suicide of the terminally ill as a separate issue from suicide prevention. The active disability community in Connecticut, however, has been vocal on the need for suicide prevention services for people with disabilities.The Plan goes on:
There may be unintended consequences of assisted suicide legislation on people with disabilities. Peace (2012) writes that "Many assume that disability is a fate worse than death. So we admire people with a disability who want to die, and we shake our collective heads in confusion when they want to live.” People with disabilities have a right to responsive suicide prevention services. The CTSAB intends to continue to explore the needs of the disability community for such services. (Emphasis added).Plan, p. 44.
The Plan concludes with "Targeted Recommendations,"which push back against the idea of rational suicide for people with disabilities:
• Do not "assume" suicide is a "rational" response to disability.
• Treat mental health conditions as aggressively as with a person without disability. (Emphasis added)Id.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
"Please don't commit suicide. Someone wants to help you."
From True Dignity Vermont:
Sad News: Brittany Maynard Died on November 1 by Assisted Suicide
http://www.truedignityvt.org/sad-news-brittany-maynard-died-november-1-assisted-suicide/
So Ms. Maynard was trapped after all. Two days ago she said she still enjoyed life and this didn't feel like the right time, and now a twenty-nine year old is dead by her own hand. She died on the very day she had said was too soon, November 1. What a waste of days that could have been spent with her family and helping others, perhaps by using her beauty in an ad to raise funds for better care of the dying or for a cure for glioblastoma. We are so sad for Maynard and her family, but most of all for those thousands of people, disabled, depressed, elderly, wrongly diagnosed, who will die prematurely or against their full free will if, instead of unleashing a wave of revulsion, her suicide unleashes a wave of new laws making assisted suicide legal.
Right now, tonight and in the coming days and months, we hope that anyone who has been led by the media's disregard of the most basic suicide prevention tenets of the World Health organization (http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/resource_media.pdf ) to think that suicide is romantic or the only solution to his or her problems will ask for help by calling his or her state's suicide hotline. For a list of these, go to http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html.
Please don't commit suicide. Someone wants to help you.
Sad News: Brittany Maynard Died on November 1 by Assisted Suicide
http://www.truedignityvt.org/sad-news-brittany-maynard-died-november-1-assisted-suicide/
So Ms. Maynard was trapped after all. Two days ago she said she still enjoyed life and this didn't feel like the right time, and now a twenty-nine year old is dead by her own hand. She died on the very day she had said was too soon, November 1. What a waste of days that could have been spent with her family and helping others, perhaps by using her beauty in an ad to raise funds for better care of the dying or for a cure for glioblastoma. We are so sad for Maynard and her family, but most of all for those thousands of people, disabled, depressed, elderly, wrongly diagnosed, who will die prematurely or against their full free will if, instead of unleashing a wave of revulsion, her suicide unleashes a wave of new laws making assisted suicide legal.
Right now, tonight and in the coming days and months, we hope that anyone who has been led by the media's disregard of the most basic suicide prevention tenets of the World Health organization (http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/resource_media.pdf ) to think that suicide is romantic or the only solution to his or her problems will ask for help by calling his or her state's suicide hotline. For a list of these, go to http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html.
Please don't commit suicide. Someone wants to help you.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Leblanc Case: A Recipe for Elder Abuse and a Threat to the Individual
By Margaret Dore
January 26, 2012
"Those who believe that legal assisted
suicide/euthanasia will assure their
suicide/euthanasia will assure their
autonomy and choice are naive."
William Reichel, MD
Montreal Gazette,
May 30, 2010[1]
A. Introduction
Leblanc vs. Attorney General of Canada brings a constitutional challenge to Canada's law prohibiting aiding or abetting a suicide. Leblance also seeks to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as a medical treatment. In 2010, a bill in the Canadian Parliament seeking a similar result was overwhelmingly defeated.
Legalization of assisted suicide and/or euthanasia under Leblanc will create new paths of elder abuse. This is contrary to Canadian public policy. Legalization will also empower the health care system to the detriment of individual patients.
A. Introduction
Leblanc vs. Attorney General of Canada brings a constitutional challenge to Canada's law prohibiting aiding or abetting a suicide. Leblance also seeks to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as a medical treatment. In 2010, a bill in the Canadian Parliament seeking a similar result was overwhelmingly defeated.
Legalization of assisted suicide and/or euthanasia under Leblanc will create new paths of elder abuse. This is contrary to Canadian public policy. Legalization will also empower the health care system to the detriment of individual patients.
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