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Beware revealing graphic details of charcoal suicides, media is warned


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Beware revealing graphic details of charcoal suicides, media is warned

By The Nation

 

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FOLLOWING a significant number of recent charcoal-burning suicides in Thailand, the Public Health Ministry’s Mental Health Department is urging the media to avoid giving too many details of how the deaths occurred, out of fear that such reports could lead to copycat deaths.
 

There were three such incidents on Monday and Tuesday of this week alone: two led to the person dying and the third saw a man being rescued just in time.

 

Mental Health Department chief Dr Kiattiphum Wongrajit said yesterday that reporting of suicides had recently been more frequent, especially those committed by burning charcoal. He said some people, being repeatedly exposed to fine details of such suicide methods and pictures in the media, might resort to attempting to kill themselves in the same way. 

 

Kiattiphum pleaded for the media’s cooperation in doing their bit to prevent more suicides, especially those using identical methods, and urged the media to be mindful of the danger when publishing reports of suicides and avoid going into too much detail or providing graphic images. 

 

He also suggested that people be alert for friends and family who exhibit any signs of depression, sadness, insomnia, negative views or anything else implying they were having suicidal thoughts, in what they said or posted on social media. 

 

“If you notice such signs, please talk to the person, offer your help and encouragement to him or her, invite him or her to take part in activities outside,” he said, “or seek help from public health facilities or the mental health hotline 1323 or the department’s smart phone application for suicide prevention namely ‘sabaijai’”.

 

Charcoal-burning suicide, a method more popular among men, accounted for 0.1 per cent of all suicide cases in Thailand from 1997-2017, said the department’s Suicide Prevention Centre.

 

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The three charcoal-burning suicide cases this week started on Monday with the death of 70-year-old Sompong Siririn, father of Paradox rock band bassist Jakkapong “Song” Siririn. He was found inside his car, which was parked at his home in Nonthaburi, along with a burned-out “Ang Lo” charcoal stove. Police suspect Sompong committed suicide during the early hours, while family members were asleep, because of stress over chronic pain after suffering a fall two years ago.

 

A 31-year-old woman, reportedly suffering stress over a large overdue debt from football gambling, was found dead in her car at 6pm on Monday along with a pot of burned-out charcoal. The car was parked at a gas station in Ayutthaya’s Ban Pa-in district. 

 

The following morning, a 37-year-old Phitsanulok-based finance company employee was found unconscious and with a weak pulse in his car, which was filled with smoke from burned charcoal in a pot. The car was parked behind a temple crematorium in Nakhon Sawan’s Muang district. His wife said the man suffered stress due to his work and from the family’s financial problems.

 

There were also three charcoal-burning suicide cases last month. 

 

On the night of January 31, a 30-year-old fruit orchard farmer was found dead in an apparent suicide in his locked pick-up truck that was parked on the side of Highway No 317 in Chanthaburi’s Muang district, also next to a burned-out charcoal stove. 

 

A 33-year-old woman, who was four months’ pregnant and reportedly suffering from depression, was found dead on January 23 in her car, parked in an isolated spot in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Muang district. Police again ruled it as a suicide case after finding a burned-out charcoal stove inside the car and because there were no signs of the woman having been in a struggle.

 

On January 3, a 46-year-old engineer was found dead, again with a burned-out charcoal stove, a pack of sleeping pills and a suicide note, in his car in Nakhon Pathom’s Bang Len district.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30364540

 

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-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-02-22
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4 hours ago, webfact said:

urged the media to be mindful of the danger when publishing reports of suicides and avoid going into too much detail or providing graphic images. 

Unless a hapless farang turns his own lights out; then it's free flowing photos and finger pointing frolicking.

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Lol, the whole article just goes on to do precisely what the Mental Health Department sensibly asked media outlets not to do! The Nation's article is an appalling piece of editorial judgement. Where do they find these people?

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Just now, digger70 said:

Isn't it up to each individual to make the choice how one want's to

Check out and leave this World If one wants to they Will find a way. 

There is already individual choice.

 

Your post ignores the fact that human psyche and mood are very strongly affected by the emotional environment and the fact that one can feel suicidal one day and much recovered the next.

This is why radio stations try to focus on the positive and avoid playing songs that have titles and lyrics linked to recent disasters and atrocities.

This is why in developed nations suicides are generally not reported or reported obliquely. There is a wealth of statistical evidence showing the copycat effect of suicides.

This is why mental health referrals spike after news of an atrocity.

 

No man is an island and the Thai media has a role to play in responsible reporting as reporters do in other countries.

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4 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

There is already individual choice.

 

Your post ignores the fact that human psyche and mood are very strongly affected by the emotional environment and the fact that one can feel suicidal one day and much recovered the next.

This is why radio stations try to focus on the positive and avoid playing songs that have titles and lyrics linked to recent disasters and atrocities.

This is why in developed nations suicides are generally not reported or reported obliquely. There is a wealth of statistical evidence showing the copycat effect of suicides.

This is why mental health referrals spike after news of an atrocity.

 

No man is an island and the Thai media has a role to play in responsible reporting as reporters do in other countries.

That's a bit far fetched I think . if you think that, there must be a lot of, soft in the head ones about.

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1 minute ago, digger70 said:

That's a bit far fetched I think . if you think that, there must be a lot of, soft in the head ones about.

Educate yourself

 

" Many people have a difficult time understanding why the words we use are so important, especially on a topic like suicide. ...."

 

https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/June-2018/Why-Suicide-Reporting-Guidelines-Matter

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7 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

You think a Thai would know what the effects of carbon monoxide are?

 

LOL.

A hosepipe leading from the exhaust into a window with the motor running might arouse suspicion. What gas is produced when burning charcoal if not carbon monoxide? All you have to know is it can kill you.

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4 hours ago, Briggsy said:

Lol, the whole article just goes on to do precisely what the Mental Health Department sensibly asked media outlets not to do! The Nation's article is an appalling piece of editorial judgement. Where do they find these people?

Thailand !!

nuff said

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2 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

No need for a BBQ, just a bit of hosepipe connected to the exhaust and Somchai's yer uncle.

 

2 hours ago, giddyup said:

Which is more likely to be noticed by a passerby?

 

Nah, they'll think it's just an environmental friendly car owner.

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Charcoal-burning suicide, a method more popular among men, accounted for 0.1 per cent of all suicide cases in Thailand from 1997-2017, said the department’s Suicide Prevention Centre.

 

Much ado about next to nothing, statistically speaking. But no surprise that charcoal is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to all those other nasty, messy ways of meeting your Maker prematurely.

 

Having a barbecued Isan sausage or two before reclining the  seat and drifting permanently into the Land of Nod clearly beats jumping off a high-rise building, slashing your wrists or choking to death in a home-made noose.

 

Ricky Gervais was right in stating recently that we should be able to access the means to end an unendurable life. Until there's  a "happy pill" available for this purpose man will just go on using his ingenuity.

 

 

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, digger70 said:

That's a bit far fetched I think . if you think that, there must be a lot of, soft in the head ones about.

Yes. And probably increasing in number  because of the selfish  attitude of society .

 For the terminally ill and those in incurable severe chronic/acute pain that the desire to  bring an early end can  be understood. Suicide in those  situations are probably  less  traumatic in outcome similar to  natural  cause.

But suicide for  emotional cause has a  much more traumatic effect especially  involving  young people.

By emotional  cause  I mean  the  whole gambit  of emotional stress.

The  variants  involved  in  family situations , educational expectations, general social expectations, employment, financial...all of  which have an effect on the individual's induced perception of  self worth so  often influenced  by social  environment.

All of us  have  some tendency  to labile emotional highs and lows.

Sadly  if a low coincides  with an emotional crisis, as perceived  by  an individual, the thought of  suicide as  a means to escape over rides  the  instinct  for  self preservation.

So  "soft in the head" may be an accurate but temporary and  fatal description.

"Hard  Doers" may scoff  but need understand a  good  percentage  of same such are  among the statistical count.

 

 

 

 

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