At least three people who lost friends or family in school shootings have killed themselves in the last week, highlighting the effects of trauma and the problem that news of suicides can encourage copycats.
Sydney Aiello, 19, and a second teenager who has not been identified, both of whom were survivors of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., died last week from apparent suicides. Jeremy Richman, father of first-grader Avielle, who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., was found Monday after taking his life.
They suffered through trauma, grief, or feelings of guilt from having survived a mass shooting that took the lives of others. The suicides occurred close to a year after the March 24 anniversary of the March for Our Lives, when people rallied in cities across the world to mourn victims of gun violence and to support gun control.
“This is not surprising in the sense that we have known for a long time that exposure to violence is associated with increased risks for post-traumatic stress disorder, as a well as other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. All of those are also risk factors for suicide,” said Dr. Yeates Conwell, co-director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
But mental health experts also caution against attributing the complex issue of suicide to a single cause. They can be tied to untreated mental health disorders, news regarding suicide or drug or alcohol misuse, and even to particular times of the year.
Paul Gionfriddo, president and CEO of Mental Health America, said the latest deaths indicate a need for more resources to help people who have been through trauma and who struggled with their mental health. He noted that Richman, who was 49, had with his wife, Jennifer Hensel, co-founded the Avielle Foundation after his daughter was killed among 20 other first-grade students and six administrators.
“He was doing so much to honor the memory of his daughter, but what were we doing for him?” Giofriddo asked.
Police tend not to disclose the method of death from suicides so that others contemplating the act won’t copy them. Otherwise doing so is triggering for people who are struggling and has been shown to be associated with contagion or “copycat suicides,” according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
News coverage of suicides, especially stories that use graphic headlines or pictures or that glamorize a death, can also cause more suicides, according to advocates for suicide prevention.
After the media widely covered the death of actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962, suicides rose by 12 percent compared with a year earlier. There was an 9.85 percent increase in suicides recorded in the U.S. in the four months following comedian Robin Williams’ death by suicide in 2014, according to one study. Research from Madelyn Gould, professor of epidemiology and psychiatry at Columbia University, has found that suicide contagion is linked to 5 percent of suicides by young people every year.
“We always want to be conscious of that, but we can’t not talk about suicide,” Gionfriddo said. “We have to be willing to understand it as best as we can, because otherwise people are afraid to speak up.”
Organizations like Mental Health America advocate for universal mental health screenings at the doctor’s office to help prevent suicide. Federal data show that suicides have risen by 30 percent in roughly two decades, taking 47,173 lives in 2017 and contributing to drops in U.S. life expectancy. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., and among 15- to 19-year-olds, it is the second-leading cause of death.
Despite the rise, suicide policy hasn’t received considerable attention from federal lawmakers. President Trump did sign a bill into law last year to reduce the current telephone helpline from its 10 digit 1-800-273-TALK (8255), to three digits, so that people would be able to more easily remember the number during a crisis.
“We have to be able to tell our public health officials that this is the time to deal with these issues,” Gionfriddo said. “The strategies we have been employing aren’t adequate. We need to double down, we need to do more.”
Phone calls to the 24-hour hotline during times of emotional distress can help people change their minds about harming or killing themselves, and getting treatment from a mental health professional is effective in preventing suicide.
“It’s critical that people in the aftermath of violent episodes be offered help … and find a way to accept it,” Conwell said.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). You can find a list of additional resources at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
