This important article, pertinent to this month's upcoming Saxon Messenger editorial, was found nowhere online, so we take the liberty to reproduce it here.
ISSUE 4 - 2011 - UK COLUMN – Page 24
Suicides In The Welsh Valleys: A Cry For Help From Our Young People Or Something Dark At Work In Our Society? Understanding Is The First Step To A Solution.
by Brian Gerrish
Some two years ago national media and press reports high lighted a spate of suicides in South Wales, mostly in the area of Bridgend and Rhondda. Principally teenagers and young people in their twenties, a few victims were in their mid forties and early fifties. The deaths came in clusters, sometimes amongst young people closely related or connected with each other, and at times amongst individuals in the same area.
A telling sign that something unusual is at work, is the fact that the majority of victims hanged themselves. This is generally at odds with national statistics where hanging is the preferred method of men and boys, and women and girls choose an overdose or other method.
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Starting in early 2007, the numbers soon passed double figures, and the suicides rapidly raised media attention. with reports generating much speculation on the causes. This in turn caused some anger at the press - a few parents accused the media of "glamorising ways of taking one's life to young people", whilst the MP for the Bridgend area said that the media were "now part of the problem." Apparently as a result of such criticism the media and press were encouraged to scale back reports so as to calm emotions and to help stop 'copycat' suicides.