The Weight of Silence: Male Suicide and the Grassroots Approach to Prevention
By Kyle Edwards
As a boy who experienced suicide to a man who works in Suicide Prevention I see now how crucial it is for this epidemic of Male Suicide to be addressed at a foundational cultural level. Grassroots efforts like those within sports clubs, schools and local community can offer the first real opportunity for boys to understand that vulnerability is not the weakness they so fear and rather that weakness comes in the weight of silence that shrouds male mental health and wellbeing.
Growing up often young men will adopt an attitude towards suicidal thinking of ‘it won’t happen to me’ that leaves them utterly and tragically unprepared for when those thoughts do arise. The stats are clear- males are drastically underrepresented in access of support services and heartbreakingly overrepresented in rates of suicide. Three quarters of all suicides are male and yet in the time I have spent working with young people in a government funded suicide prevention team, just over a quarter have been males. Rather than seeking the help they need too often this whirlpool of intense emotion will manifest in self-destructive behaviour such as excessive alcohol and drug use, violence, withdrawal and isolation. These behaviours are learned and ingrained in males from before they can speak properly. At the grassroots level is where this begins and therein lies the opportunity for fundamental cultural change.
Mental health literacy, help seeking behaviour and expression of vulnerability and emotion need to be taught to young men as much as the ability to kick a drop punt or bowl a flipper. Silence replaced with deep and meaningful discussions that can foster identification of risk factors the need to give and receive support and address them accordingly is a simple, economical and pain free way of beginning to change the fundamental cultural issues that define the male suicide epidemic. The state and national suicide prevention strategies to this point, outlines this issue, is able to identify the vision of where our society should be aiming for and yet continually fail to address the steps, provide the funding and/or undertake actions that must be enacted to actually achieve this vision.