Can Memorials Trigger Suicide?

On March 22, 2010 Candace Kallevig wrote a blog saying that when a person commits suicide, others many commit suicide too to get the same attention. One of the first reaction that people take is to mourn and grieve, sometimes publicly and sometimes just to themselves. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention tells schools that if a student has committed suicide have a "muted response." It is likely that if the school makes a big deal out of the suicide, that students who are already thinking about suicide might like the thought of getting attention in death. Researchers say that suicide is contagious and that groups of people commit suicide relatively close to the time someone else in the group commits suicide. From the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Ann Haas says that there should be memorials, but that the schools should try to develop a suicide prevention organization in their honor.

Candace thinks that suicide can be contagious and that people shouldn't give a lot of attention to a person who took their own life. She is all for a suicide prevention center, but not in honor of someone.

I agree with Candace. Suicide can be contagious and is a terrible thing. I think that opening a suicide prevention center could be a good idea, but if we really think about it, people who are thinking of committing suicide aren't in the right state of mind to think to go to a suicide prevention center. I think that the center wouldn't get a lot of people to come to it unless they give informational sessions on signs that might lead to a suicide and those people who know the signs could help the people who might commit suicide. I also agree with Candace when she says that opening a center in honor of someone who took their life is not a good idea. The thought of maybe a memorial being opened in their honor could lead students considering suicide to actually commit suicide.

To answer the question in my title, Can memorials trigger suicide? I believe so.