Russian Children Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov on Thursday called on the government to take urgent measures to contain an alarming rash of teenage suicides across the country.
“Our government can not continue disregarding the high suicide rates. Continuing [adolescent] suicides point out the necessity of urgent governmental measures,” Astakhov said in a message on his website. “The Health and the Education Ministries should launch programs aimed at tackling adolescent suicides.”
The ombudsman’s call came after a flurry of teen suicides in Moscow in the past week. On Wednesday, 14-year-old Sasha Filippiev jumped from the window of his apartment on the 12th floor. He reportedly had been accused of stealing a classmate's camera.
Earlier, Russia was stunned by the twin suicide of two best friends Yelizaveta Petsylya and Anastasia Korolyova, both 14. The girls died after jumping from the roof a 14-storey building in Lobnya, a satellite city of Moscow. Reportedly, the girls had skipped classes for two weeks and were afraid what would happen when their parents found out.
Before taking her own life, Korolyova left a post on her account on Vkontakte, a popular Russian social networking site. “Death: Why are you following me? Me: I like you.” The girl’s last post said: “I hate being asked: “what if your friends decide to jump from the ninth floor? Will you jump too?” Yeah, I will. How can I live without my friends?”
Astakhov proposed that psychologists check social networks for accounts of teenagers stating suicidal thoughts. He also called for the introduction of schemes to crack down on cyber-bullying, a frequent cause of suicide worldwide.
Vkonatkte does not have any suicide prevention mechanisms; however, Facebook has recently announced it was stepping up efforts to launch a program to help troubled users who may be contemplating suicide. The program recognized as Lifeline aims to stop suicides by connecting upset users with counselors via chat.
Friends of users who post comments related to suicide, will be enabled to report this instance to Facebook by clicking a link next to the comment. Then Facebook will send an email to the comment’s writer guiding them to a telephone hotline or a link they can click to start a confidential chat.
“Being stuck in a crisis situation, children should not be left face-to-face with their problems…The society, first of all professional psychologists and psychiatrists, should help them,” Astakhov said.
About 4,000 suicide attempts are committed by teenagers in Russia annually, the ombudsman said. In about 1,500 cases, the teenager dies.
Russia ranks third in the world in terms of the number of suicides committed by adolescents, with its average suicide rate among the adolescent population being more than three times higher than the world’s average, according to UNICEF data, published in November 2011.
While the level of adolescent depression in Western developed countries does not exceed 5 percent, the same level in Russia is hovering around 20 per cent. Thoughts of suicide come to the mind of 45 per cent of girls and 27 per cent of young men in Russia, UNICEF added.
