Schools out of date, don't recognise suicide warnings, says psychiatrist

Parents, children and teachers should engage on depression, anxiety and stress which have all increased among teenagers, a psychiatrist says.

In the past week, two Gauteng pupils died after drinking poison.

One was a grade 8 girl from Geluksdal Secondary School in Ekurhuleni, who drank poison at home on Tuesday night and died on her way to a health facility. The other was a matric pupil from Nigel High School, who also took poison at home last Thursday and died.

On Tuesday, the body of grade 10 pupil Mia Kühn was found on a field of Hoërskool Garsfontein after she allegedly snuck out of home the night before. The cause of her death is not yet known.

These incidents have increased among black communities and townships, said psychiatrist Dr Shlomo Brook.

Brook authored and recently launched the book, Teenagers, Stress, Anxiety and Depression, which he hopes to introduce to schools during a project Go Nna Le Tshepo (To have trust/hope).

He said the book was inspired by a family who came to see him after their children committed suicide in Kagiso. With this book, he intends to give lectures to schools, parents and pupils with the help of the basic education department.

“I have some patients who have anxiety and depression ... The material taught in life orientation at schools is outdated and doesn’t come from a medical point of view. They don’t talk about stress and anxiety. The book talks about bullying, suicide, cutting oneself, drugs and alcohol, and has a questionnaire for children to take to determine if they have symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress,” he said.

The increasing common causes of depression and anxiety among teenagers are social media, bullying at school, cyber bullying and issues at home. But he said there are no exact figures on the teenage suicide rate as many are left unreported.

“This is an imminent disaster, and in the past it was mostly in white schools and communities, but now that I work in Krugersdorp [I have seen] there is more in black society.

“Families don’t understand what is happening [with their children] and are not aware of depression,” he said.

This is because mental health is still stigmatised and symptoms are so vast that they often go unnoticed until it is too late, the SA Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) said.

The stigma and fear around suicide has led many parents and teachers to be afraid of talking about it to teenagers, Sadag's deputy chair and clinical psychologist Zamo Mbele said.

“Research shows that talking about suicide with a young person does not cause them to have thoughts of suicide. Rather, the danger comes from not talking about it, which can lead to thoughts of suicide turning into action,” Mbele said.

Brooks said he plans on changing this with his campaign, which will eventually be rolled out across the province. He will start at schools in the Krugersdorp area when schooling resumes next week.

The book also advises parents and teachers on how to identify mental health symptoms and deal with the suicide of a fellow pupil.

“The surviving pupils get more depressed and more anxious. Sometimes suicide could influence others. The whole school where it happened becomes a dangerous situation as they need to find a way of identifying depressed children and try to send them for help.

“I had a teacher three years ago who had five pupils commit suicide. She was devastated and blamed herself for not picking up the depression. She also inspired me to write the book,” he said.

He said teachers and parents should look out for symptoms and seek immediate help and intervention.

Symptoms include mood swings, insomnia, irritability, being emotional and shouting, isolating themselves, school marks dropping, spending hours in their bedrooms, not eating, losing weight, and writing letters or drawing pictures depicting death.

“One thing that is important is that the teacher becomes the agent that identifies the depression and can act and let the parents know or seek help.”

Sadag operations director Cassey Chambers said it was important for teachers and parents to do “check-ins” throughout the day and normalise these chats during every day activities.

“It doesn’t have to be a scary conversation and the more you incorporate them into your day-to-day, the more you make these conversations more natural and less like serious family meeting. Teens will then learn that talking about their feelings is normal and OK, and that you are a safe space to talk about their emotions,” she said.

• The Sadag helplines can be reached on: 0800 567 567 and 0800 456 789.

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