Meeting of the Parliament 21 January 2014
This is one of these debates to which we contribute as politicians wishing that we knew more about the subject—much more about the subject than any one of us probably does. Therefore, our contributions are all circumscribed by that fact.
To my surprise, we last touched on this topic—I can remember the debate quite clearly—on 24 January last year, when we spoke about mental health issues. I thought that the debate was much more recent than that. There were excellent speeches in that debate from many who have not contributed today—we heard then from Fiona McLeod, Malcolm Chisholm, Richard Simpson, Mary Scanlon, Dennis Robertson, Mary Fee and David Stewart.
In that earlier debate, when we were talking about mental health issues more generally, suicide became a feature of our discussion and at that point the SAMH two too many campaign was mentioned. Even though we are having this debate against a background of a falling number of those who are taking their own lives in Scotland, the two too many campaign illustrates that, each and every day, two people in Scotland take their own lives. In total, that is 14 deaths in every 100,000 against a European average of 16 deaths in every 100,000.
As Neil Findlay said, if we roll it all up into a global figure, the number of people who commit suicide is astonishing. It is not the norm but the exception, but it is against that background that we are seeking—through the strategy that I think all of us are very happy to support—to effectively understand why people commit suicide and to seek to reduce the number further.
Historically and in different cultures there have been different attitudes to suicide, but in Scotland it is a long time since it was a heroic act to defend a nation’s wellbeing in war or since we had any correlation to some sort of old imperial Japanese code of conduct. I have to assume that, for most people, the decision to commit suicide is a bleak, cold and lonely one that is almost always taken for reasons about which our despair should match that of any unfortunate soul who contemplates such an end.
Let us understand the context that we will not eliminate suicide—I agree with James Dornan on that—but that we should pursue policies and actions that will continually militate against the reasons that drive people to thinking of it. In Michael Matheson’s foreword to the strategy document, he sums up the issue by saying simply:
“Every suicide is a tragedy that has a far reaching impact on family, friends and the community long after a person has died.”
That is the general point that every member understands and which is at the heart of the tragedy.
During the debate, all sorts of reasons why people commit suicide have been advanced. As Kenny Gibson said, although he chose not to talk about it today, some people who are faced with some sort of medical prognosis decide that suicide is the right course. Others are driven by a breakdown in relationships or a radical change in fortunes, which might well be relationship driven or to do with careers or finance.
Some people are driven to suicide because they are different. On that issue, as a country, we can take considerable pride in the way in which our culture has changed, certainly since I was young. At that time, if someone was disabled, they could be the subject of ridicule or, if people were gay, that was to be disowned and denied, or worse. There were all manner of other social stigmas that drove people to suicide. As a society at large, we have moved on considerably and, I hope, not so many of those stigmas are now apparent.
Neil Findlay talked about Touched by Suicide, social groups and what we can do to assist people to be better able to develop the skills that will allow them to intuitively recognise those who are at risk. Nanette Milne talked about the impact and potential consequences of the web, which Kevin Stewart and Christine Grahame also touched on.
I am not being flippant when I say that my sons certainly receive lots of comments for being the sons of a Tory MSP, and they have learned to cope with that. It is incredible how many young people find themselves the subject of bullying that is driven by the actions of their parents or the perceptions of their parents. That has a wholly corrosive effect on some young people, but they can have a great reluctance to discuss that in the family, because they feel that in some way they are protecting their parent from what has been said about them. On some dreadful occasions, that has driven young people to suicide.