Re: Suicide Number Three Killer of Children in Michigian

"JanD" <JanD@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
SwADf.765009$xm3.129792@attbi_s21:">news:SwADf.765009$xm3.129792@attbi_s21:

> http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060130/cgm035.html?.v=35
>
> Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network Raise
> Awareness of Youth Depression, Suicide Among Health Policy Leaders
> Throughout State
>
> Monday January 30, 10:14 am ET
> Companies partner with national health policy magazine to combat
> suicide as the Number 3 killer of children in Michigan

The press writer here is getting away with something he really shouldn't.

> Suicide is the third leading cause of death for Michigan young people
> -- and that makes it a major public health problem in the state,
> according to health officials. Between the years 1999-2002, 583
> Michigan youngsters age 10- 24 died by their own hand. Moreover,
> experts in suicide prevention say that many of these deaths -- most of
> which are based in an underlying mental illness -- can be prevented.

[snip]

> * According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
> at the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at
> http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars , which notes that between the years
> 1999- 2002 (the most recent year for which data is available), 583
> children ages 10- 24 in Michigan took their own lives.

Almost half that age range consists of adults (18-24), and according to
the CDC figures, they account for 72% of the suicides (109 between 18 and
19, and 312 between 20 and 24). There were only 162 suicides among
"youngsters" or "children." Thus it appears that suicide is really a
"young adult" problem rather than a "childhood" one. But making it seem
like a childrens' problem tugs harder on the heartstrings. The danger
here is that scarce resources will be directed into the wrong places;
it's quite likely, for example, that many of the 18-24 year-olds who
killed themselves *wouldn't* have shown any signs of suicidality or even
depression when they were 10-17; it's likely that their problems were set
off by transition-to-adulthood issues. Thus a strong focus on middle-
and high-schoolers will likely miss most of the cases (I am writing
"likely" an awful lot, aren't I?).

No professional writer should be able to write "children ages 10-24" with
a straight face, nor should any proofreader be able to go past it without
it hitting them between the eyes.

Note that according to the CDC figures, suicide is actually the *second*
largest cause of death among 10-17 year-old Michiganders (the biggest is
accidents, 680 deaths and the third is homicide, 128 deaths. Cancer
comes in fourth at 121, birth defects a distant fifth at 63, heart
disease sixth at 58, asthma seventh at 33, benign tumors and
influenza/pneumonia tying for eighth and ninth at 9 apiece, and three
unstated causes tying for tenth at 8 deaths). Note that the 2003 data is
now available; including it doesn't change the rankings (the 10-17
suicide total for 1999-2003 is 195). Just for comparison, from 1994 to
1998 it was 205, from 1989 to 1993 it was 228, and from 1984 to 1988 it
was 268. So referring to Michigan's 10-17 suicide rates as a "crisis" is
a bit dramatic, and the insurers involved need to avoid creating the
impression of launching a major initiative to deal with a problem that's
already on the decline and then taking credit for any further decline.

.

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