Young men in London are losing their lives to the biggest killer of their generation that remains an unspoken truth.
90% of Londoners are unaware of this crisis in the city. No one in government or the media have brought this tragic situation to the attention of the public. Instead, it’s swept under the carpet and ignored, but the problem persists. It claimed the lives of 119 men aged between 15 and 34 in the capital last year. The cause of death not been talked about is suicide.
‘The silence is killing us’. That’s the tagline of an advertising campaign from a charity that assists those at risk of taking their own lives. Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM); is bringing attention to this issue as others shy away from it. They are eager to fill the void and save the lives of young men. They recently released the official Office for National Statistics records for causes of death in young men, which confirmed that suicide is the single biggest killer of young men in London”. Not surprisingly, nine out of ten respondents thought that common media scare-stories like knife and gun crimes were responsible for the greatest loss of life. They, like me, were astonished to discover the truth. Some sections of the media sensationalise their reporting on youth crime, but remain strangely silent on the issue of young people taking their own lives. With the tragic death of the Wales football Manager, Gary Speed, suicide is now on the media’s agenda along with its cause, depression.
CALM, the campaign against living miserably, have launched a new London CALMzone targeting suicide amongst young men. This was launched on the same weekend as the passing of the former footballer. It has forced many people to broach a subject that normally leaves many people uncomfortable just discussing it. After all, many of us are told that boys don’t cry, so admitting to depression is seen as a form of weakness in some circles. Their helpline and texting service provides support to vulnerable people in need of help, but don’t know what to do. I wanted to know more about CALM and what their hopes are for their campaign. I spoke with CALMzone Coordinator Dan Taylor, who spoke at length about their aims and the importance of getting people to open up about suicide.
Although CALM has been featured in the Evening Standard, the charity contacted other mainstream media about their recent launch, but got little interest. Dan says: “People aren’t talking about this (suicide). They don’t know what the solution is. The kind of general response is that suicide is bad, but what can we do about it. This is something that obviously affects men. 75% of suicides are male, showing how men find it more difficult to find places where they can confidentially unload.
“We think having a free and confidential helpline and website for the stories is one way we can tackle the immediate problem. It’s a public health problem. If you’re a young man, the biggest risk to your life is suicide. You just wouldn’t think like that. You’d think it’d be knife crime, drug overdoses and shootings.”
Men by their nature aren’t quite so keen to open up to matters of the mind. We have trouble communicating how we’re feeling when something is bothering us. On the subject of depression, they are reluctant to talk about it as they fear being labelled soft. We have a macho image to maintain and would rather stay silent than have people making fun at our state of mind. The Sun newspaper ran a headline in 2003, where they called former boxer Frank Bruno ‘bonkers’. ‘Bonkers Bruno Locked Up’ was widely criticised by the public for being insensitive. Bruno had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital after suffering with depression. This is what men have to endure when they try to open up and talk about what’s on their minds. Dan says this is a problem that society has built up.
“It’s definitely harder for men to talk about depression just because culturally men are expected, supposed to be the strong and silent type. We’re expected and we expect of ourselves that we should just go through life and go through a lot of problems, things particularly affecting young people at the moment like unemployment, like having cuts to local services, like being in a lot of debt, all this puts more pressure on your relationships, so a lot of people feel down because their personal relationships are breaking down. There’s nothing that’s ever been targeted at young men before.
“There’s never been any kind of positive message that it’s okay for guys to talk when they need to. I think that it’s something that affects young men a lot more because we’re expected to take the world on our shoulders and it’s just too much for anybody. Everybody in life goes through difficult times, we all have points we’re struggling, feeling quite low and that’s quite normal. It doesn’t mean you have mental health problems, but the attitude of society is that if you’re going through a hard time, you just have to drown it out or block it out, which is often the sort of advice to just get on with it. You just can’t do that sometimes.”
All of the advertising for CALM has been given for free by ad agency BMB and the high-profile celebs were excited to get involved. The billboard campaign, which ran for a few days in November, includes familiar faces from the world of television and music. Ashley Walters, Killa Kela, Scroobius Pip, Faith SFX and Kayvan Novak. The campaign also appeared in Shortlist magazine. Dan says the ads have proved to be a big success. “A lot of people have been emailing us about the campaign. We’ve got a lot of response. Who knows how many conversations this has triggered?”
In addition to the helpline, there is also a bi-monthly magazine called CALMzine, which is available from Top Man or from their own website. CALM are doing their best to let people know how prevalent suicide is amongst the young generation in London.Their Merseyside branch saw a 55% reduction in suicides amongst young men between 1999 and 2009. The London department is hoping to replicate their success. It wants everyone to spread the word about the services they offer. They want young men from the city to know there is someone they can talk to about depression.
It is vital that this issue is brought to the attention of the public. With young people having a tough time with high unemployment and increases in university tuition, it is easy for them to become isolated and left feeling desolate about life. There is hope for the future. It is important that we all play our part to ensure they don’t take the drastic step of ending their lives.
Story and image by Mark Williams