Notes and Quotes

How does ''13 Reasons Why'' represent mental health issues and can it be argued that it glorifies suicide?

Online Newspaper Articles
It’s a revenge fantasy, so it portrays suicide as an act that will achieve something. It’s aimed at a young audience, who are particularly susceptible to contagion, and particularly likely to experience suicidal thoughts. It normalises and legitimises the act. It goes into too much and too graphic detail about the suicide itself – which is expressly against Ofcom guidelines because, however horrible it is to watch, this can still be read as a how-to.
Indeed, the Samaritans released a statement about the show that didn’t trouble itself overmuch with the details of the programme’s transgressions, perhaps considering them too obvious. Instead, the charity goes straight for Netflix: “It is extremely concerning that a drama series, aimed at a young audience, can be produced outside of the UK and made available to UK audiences and yet not subject to UK media regulation.”
  • Netflix drama '13 Reasons Why' blamed for inspiring teen girls' attempted suicide-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/22/netflix-drama-13-reasons-blamed-inspiring-teen-girls-attempted/ 
Concerns have been raised over a popular Netflix teen drama after claims it inspired the attempted suicide of two 13-year-old girls in Austria.
The two girls are now recovering after teachers found them at the last minute.There have been calls in Austria for 13 Reasons Why, a Netflix drama which tells the story of an American high school student who kills herself, to be banned in the wake of the incident.
 I wonder about its handling of suicide, which again is depicted graphically; one of the adult characters says there’s never really any way of knowing why Hannah did what she did, and I found myself on his side in that, even though I don’t think that is what we’re being led to feel.
It’s also one of those Netflix moments where binge-watching is not beneficial. In the end, the cumulative horror of all these woeful scenarios happening to one girl feels overblown if you watch it in bulk, though I imagine it would have been far more effective in the old way of teasing out the mystery with one instalment a week.
Mental health groups have criticised a new Netflix drama for its “sensationalised” portrayal of a 17-year-old’s suicide, which they say could encourage young people to take their own lives.
The Samaritans, psychiatrists, and mental health campaigners claim 13 Reasons Why could prompt troubled young people to copy the suicide of its central character, Hannah Baker.
Sarah Hulyer, a mental health campaigner -“[13 Reason’s Why’s] creators claimed they were hoping to ‘help’ people struggling with the issues shown in the show, but it’s a storyline that is about revenge suicide, demonises counsellors and includes none of the characters reaching out for help and receiving it, it’s not clear exactly what they think ‘helping’ is,” she added.
The number of suicides in the UK among 10 to 14-year-olds has risen from four in 2010 to 10 in 2015, and among those aged 15-19 from 166 to 221 over the same period, according to the Office of National Statistics.
The New Zealand classifications body has created a new category of censorship for controversial Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why, after complaints from mental health bodies that it glorified suicide and could prompt copycats.
New Zealand has the highest rate of teenage suicide in the OECD, with an average of two young people taking their own life each week.
On Thursday the New Zealand Office of Film and Literature created a new censorship category RP18 to address concerns over the series, issuing an immediate restriction on the show to those aged under 18, unless accompanied by an adult.
“Her death is represented at times as not only a logical, but an unavoidable outcome of the events that follow. Suicide should not be presented to anyone as being the result of clear headed thinking.
“The show ignores the relationship between suicide and the mental illness that often accompanies it. People often commit suicide because they are unwell, not simply because people have been cruel to them. It is also extremely damaging to present rape as a ‘good enough’ reason for someone to commit suicide. This sends the wrong message to survivors of sexual violence about their futures and their worth.”
Google Scholar

  • Popular Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why sends out worrying messages about suicide-http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/3785/1/Popular%20Netflix%20drama%2013%20Reasons%20Why%20sends%20out%20worrying%20messages%20about.pdf

“People who have experienced similar problems may begin to view suicide as a viable option for them. “

“The situation for many people is much more complex, and for some people there are no clear or obvious reasons why they feel how they do. For people unable to identify their reasons for feeling suicidal, there is little to legitimise their experience. Distress is valid and people are deserving of help, whether there is one reason, 13 reasons, or no obvious reason at all. The series also suggests that, with so many reasons, suicide was the protagonist’s only option.”

“In fact, the characters are shown going to great lengths to keep information away from sources of potential support. The one time Hannah did seek help, the experience is shown to be negative. This provides an inaccurate representation of support services, suggesting others are incapable or unwilling to help someone in distress.”


“ Research indicates that exposure to detailed descriptions or images of suicide, including methods and means of suicide, is associated with increased distress and can increase the risk of imitation by vulnerable people, particularly those who have been affected by suicide. This is known as copycat behaviour or social contagion.”
“Suicide is the third leading cause of death amongst adolescents.”


“Adolescent depression is quite common, with approximately 11 percent of all teens experiencing depression during adolescence”

·Many reasons to talk about suicide       
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0104-42302017000700557&script=sci_arttext

1 Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (FMUSP). Head of the Inpatient Unit, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division, Institute of Psychiatry, Hospital das Clínicas, USP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Approximately 1 million people die each year from suicide worldwide.1 This is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults.1Although recognized by the World Health Organization as a public health priority, mental disorders and suicide are beset by ignorance and stigma, which hinders proper treatment and prevention.

Recently, teenage suicide has been the subject of news because of a supposed online challenge called “Blue Whale,” probably originating in Russia, which would encourage risky behavior among participants and ultimately suicide. It has also been widely discussed after being portrayed in an American drama series, 13 Reasons Why, which has been watched by many young people in Brazil and the world. Both the online challenge and the television drama pose risks, but the community’s interest in the subject is an important opportunity to educate people about suicide.
The online challenge, in line with many websites, blogs and messaging lists that encourage other risky behaviors (such as self-mutilation and restrictive eating behavior) found its way in the lives of fragile adolescents who often already suffer from mental illnesses.

·http://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9975&context=bg-news       

pg 7

“13 Reasons” tackles teen suicide By Jacob Clary Pulse Reporter “13 Reasons Why” is a show revolving around a suicide, which may make some potential viewers cautious of it, but they shouldn’t be. 

First off, the series, based on the novel of the same name, portrays suicide better than most shows I have seen. It reveals that people go to this extreme because they feel completely alone. They think that they have no other option than to kill themselves. All of the characters in the show have caused her to believe that suicide is what she should do, and that is what can happen in reality as well. 

Making Connections during Transactional Discussions: Adolescents’ Empathic Responses to Thirteen Reasons Why

As students empathized with characters in this young adult text, they often developed insights into their own lives, a move that we identified as a text-to-life connection. At the beginning of this third interpretive episode, another group of students discussed the impact one’s own words and actions can have on others and the way that the text has helped them to develop that insight.
1. Felicia: Like this story [is] sayin’—like you’ll sit here and you’ll say something to somebody and you might be joking, but they might think you’re not joking, so this book opens up people’s eyes. It opened up my eyes.
2. Nick: It opens up your . . .
3. Felicia: Like certain things that you say to people might hurt them more than it hurts someone else.
4. Danielle: Even though you don’t know it.
5. Nick: Things that you do, too.
During this part of the episode, students connected with the idea that words may affect people in different ways; individuals are unique, and so are their reactions. The students displayed empathy generally (lines 1 & 3) as they put themselves in another’s shoes to realize that what one says to someone might affect that person more than expected based on one’s own or another’s reactions. As the episode continued, students bridged the impact of other characters’ actions on Hannah’s suicide with the way students with special needs were treated at their own school and other schools in their region.

Suicide and the Media by Madelyn S. Gould

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05807.x/full

Abstract: Evidence continues to amass on the significant impact of media coverage on suicide. The research literature on the impact of news reports of nonfictional suicides as well as fictional suicide stories is reviewed in order to determine the nature and scope of the influence of the mass media on suicide. 

Such interactive factors include characteristics of the stories (agent), individuals' attributes (host), and social context of the stories (environment). Recommendations are presented for the reporting of suicide stories, which may minimize the risk of imitative suicides. The media's positive role in educating the public about risks for suicide and shaping attitudes about suicide is emphasized.
http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Media/media_fact_sheets/153%20Mental%20Health%20in%20the%20Media.pdf

 Media Studies- Media Factsheet- Number 153
Mental Health and Institution
Different media institutions have different priorities, and those priorities
can affect the kind of representations produced. Media companies
with a focus on making a profit, such as Hollywood studios or
tabloid newspapers, may have a greater tendency to use sensationalist stereotypes to attract audiences.

Can the Media CAUSE Mental Illness?
While representation of mental illness in the media has long been a
topic of discussion, the impact of the media on the mental health of its
audience is something we are only just beginning to discuss. Some
research has suggested a link between high levels of media
consumption and depression in later life.
Media Studies- Media Factsheet – Number 128
Regulators also provide somebody for audiences to complain to if they
see something they don’t like. If you are offended by a TV show, feel
that an advert is making claims that are unrealistic or a newspaper has
invaded your privacy, the regulator is somebody you can turn to to take
up your complaint. However, how effectivy different regulators are in
carrying out these functions is a source of constant debate. Regulators
must provide a set of tough consequences for media organisations that

break the rules, but they do also need to balance the interests of media producers and protect freedom of expression.
Books

  • Media and Suicide: International Perspectives on Research, Theory, and Policy edited by Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Steven Stack

Part I: Research on Media Impacts on Suicide pg 5
“Recent work has shown that traditional media play an important role in the selection of suicide methods. For example , research on persons who have attempted suicide has found that 77 percent reported getting their information on methods of suicide from the movies (Biddle, Gunnell et al., 2012)

 Reviews 

  • http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837492/reviews


 Overall, with such an unlikable main character, it makes the show very difficult to enjoy. I personally think this show is way overrated and there are people in real life that deal with much worse and don't kill themselves. In fact, Skye says it best in the show; "Suicide is for the weak." Now, I don't want anyone to think I am downgrading suicide as a real issue in anyway shape or form. It's a horrible reality many people face and it's extremely tragic. I just feel that this show almost depicts it as a solution to a problem as there are two other characters who also attempt to kill themselves (Clay and Alex). Which, I might add, are caused by the grief passed on from Hannah's tapes. Maybe she wanted a chain reaction to happen, cause that's what she got.

 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/13-reasons-why-makes-a-smarmy-spectacle-of-suicide

 “Beyond the Reasons” is supposed to counteract and explain the seemingly gratuitous violence in the thirteen hours that precede it. It’s supposed to ward off the phenomenon of suicide contagion that school administrators have recently become afraid of, for good reason—a phenomenon that the “13 Reasons Why” writers wrote directly into the show, having a character named Alex attempt suicide toward the end of the season.


Documentaries

The 13 Reasons Why cast, producers and mental health professionals discuss scenes dealing with difficult issues, including bullying, depression and sexual assault.

Articles/ Reviews on "Beyond the Reasons"

  • http://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/13-reasons-why-netflix-video-rape-suicide-controversy-1201812693/

’13 Reasons Why’ Documentary ‘Beyond The Reasons:’ Watch the Cast Discuss the Show’s Tough Issues


Now, the streaming giant has released on its YouTube channel a half-hour video where the cast, producers and mental health professionals discuss scenes dealing with difficult issues, including bullying, depression and sexual assault. The special is also seen after watching the final episode of the series on Netflix.

  • http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6723582/reviews

This is not a making-of or behind the scenes documentary. It is a documentary that focuses on the emotional state of the central character and what goes on in her mind exactly. But does it really? Actually, no. This slightly under half an hour has almost absolutely nothing of value to say. Stetements include stuff like "It is difficult for the parent of a teenager." or "It's not okay for a boy to get drunk and have his way with girls to his liking afterward." in the sense of to rape them. It is extremely shallow and nothing beyond the reasons or beyond the surface as the title wants us to believe. Besides, there were moments when this documentary even had more than just a touch of misandry to it. Why not talk about female rapists or at least mention them?

Media Effects Theories/ Audience Responses to Media

https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory/

The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.
The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.
Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". With similarly emotive imagery the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. They express the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. There is no escape from the effect of the message in these models. The population is seen as a sitting duck. People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot of media material "shot" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.

13 Reasons Why- Although the initial aim of the show was to reduce the risk of suicide amongst teenagers, the overall message (especially in the suicide scene ) may be misleading. By showing someone committing suicide, some audiences may be tempted to see that "suicide" is a reasonable solution to mental health issues and depression.

 https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Interpersonal%20Communication%20and%20Relations/Contagion_theories/

 Contact is provided by communication networks in contagion theories. These communication networks serve as a mechanism that exposes people, groups, and organizations to information, attitudinal messages and the behaviors of others

 The organizational members’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior are related to the information, attitudes, and behavior of others in the network to which they are linked. Factors such as frequency, multiplexity, strength, and asymmetry can shape the extent to which others influence individuals in their networks (Erickson, 1988).

 13 Reasons Why- The vast amount of explicit scenes in the show (especially for a teen drama) is one of the reasons why the show had a large impact on the audience. The exposure to scenes such as rape, suicide, and violence, leads to audiences finding that sort of behaviour acceptable in the real world. 


https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Mass%20Media/Uses_and_Gratifications_Approach/

Originated in the 1970s as a reaction to traditional mass communication research emphasizing the sender and the message. Stressing the active audience and user instead. Psychological orientation taking needs, motives and gratifications of media users as the main point of departure.

 Core: Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and society in general. There are three objectives in developing uses and gratifications theory: 1) to explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs.“What do people do with the media”.2) to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use. 3) to identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use. At the core of uses and gratifications theory lies the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs.

13 Reasons Why- Again, various audiences may interpret the key messages of the show in a different way. Older and mature audience members may use the show for surveillance- finding out about how suicidal thoughts develop amongst teens?, how does it affect their school/home life? Whereas , younger audiences may see the show  as a form of entertainment/diversion- which diverts them from the real meaning of suicide being an unacceptable choice for victims of mental health issues. 

 https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/effect-media-content-audiences-society

 Imitation or copycat violence
Early studies of the relationship between the media and violence focused on conducting experiments in laboratories, e.g. Bandura et al. (1963) carried out an experiment on young children which involved exposing them to films and cartoons of a self-righting doll being attacked with a mallet. They concluded on the basis of this experiment that violent media content could lead to imitation or copycat violence.

 Desensitisation
Newson argued that sadistic images in films were too easily available and that films encouraged viewers to identify with violent perpetrators rather than victims. Furthermore, Newson noted that children and teenagers are subjected to thousands of killings and acts of violence as they grow up through viewing television and films. Newson suggested that such prolonged exposure to media violence may have a drip-drip effect on young people over the course of their childhood and result in their becoming desensitised to violence. Newson argues that they see violence as a normal problem-solving device and concluded that, because of this, the latest generation of young people subscribe to weaker moral codes and are more likely to behave in anti-social ways than previous generations.

  • Furedi argues that moral panics arise when society fails to adapt to dramatic social changes and it is felt that there is a loss of control, especially over powerless groups such as the young. Furedi therefore argues that moral panics are about the wider concerns that the older generation have about the nature of society today – people see themselves (and their families) as at greater risk from a variety of groups. They believe that things are out of control. They perceive, with the media’s encouragement, that traditional norms and values no longer have much relevance in their lives. Furedi notes that people feel a very real sense of loss, which makes them extremely susceptible to the anxieties encouraged by media moral panics.
  • Curran, J., & Gurevitch, M. (2005). Mass media and society. London: Hodder Education.
pg 52
" Much of the impetus for early work on the representation of women came from the feeling that the available 'images of women' were not adequate, generating the common complaint, 'We're not really like that'. It is a complaint which can be made by any group that feels itself to have an identity that is misrepresented by the media and is most consistently made by those who feel themselves to have little power within media institutions and little control over what they do."

"Representation then takes on the representative function of showing what a particular group is like to others and therefore has a public function...there is in the complaint a sense that a more accurate representation is important to those being represented as because it affects how they see themselves."
  • Hartley, J. (2011). Communication, cultural and media studies: the key concepts. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
pg 8
"the theory of aesthetics...relied on the assumption that aesthetic criteria lay within the work itself, negating the need to consider issues of context and the means of production."
  • Bignell, J. (2008). An Introduction to Television Studies. London: Routledge.
pg 301
"active audience- television audiences regarded not as passive consumers of meanings, but as negotiating meanings for themselves that are often resistant to those meaning that are intended or that are discovered by close analysis."
  • Bell, A., Joyce, M., & Rivers, D. (2001). Advanced level media. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
pg 6
"A fictional text does not have the same connection to a reality beyond the text but it has to convince its audience in relation to the genre or form within which it is operating...The characters tend to behave in a way that is recognizable from everyday life and the film will work if the audience is convinced by the protagonists and their relationships even if the setting and the events are unlike anything the audience have experienced."

"A key fact to bear in mind is that all media texts are representations of events and not the events themselves...It is also easier to see a text as constricted if the viewer has first hand experience of events or can draw from a range of alternative sources of information."
  • Hall, S. (2013). Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. Milton Keynes: Los Angeles, Calif.

pg 16
"To represent also means to symbolize, stand for...or to substitute for..."

  • Freedman, D. (2015). The contradictions of media power. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
pg 5
"According to Paul Starr, media technologies had, by the 1920s, fromed a 'new constellation of power' and were,by now, 'increasingly a source of wealth'...Since that point, the power of radio, film, television and latterly the internet to amuse and distract, to mobilize and publicize...to educate and enrage has grown exponentially."

  • Jenkins, H. (2008). Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.
pg 3
"This circulation of media content—across different media systems, competing media economies, and national borders—depends heavily on consumers' active participation."

pg 18
"At the same time, there has been an alarming concentration of the ownership of mainstream commercial media, with a small handful of multinational media conglomerates dominating all sectors of the entertainment industry"

"Media companies are learning how to accelerate the flow of media content across delivery channels to expand revenue opportunities, broaden markets, and reinforce viewer commitments.Consumers are learning how to use these different media technologies to bring the flow of media more fully under their control and to interact with other consumers."



  • Niederkrotenthaler, T., & Stack, S. (2017). Media and suicide: international perspectives on research, theory, and policy. New Brunswick: Transaction .

pg 5
“Recent work has shown that traditional media play an important role in the selection of suicide methods. For example , research on persons who have attempted suicide has found that 77 percent reported getting their information on methods of suicide from the movies (Biddle, Gunnell et al., 2012)"

  • Gould, M. S. (2006). Suicide and the Media. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,932(1), 200-224. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2001.tb05807.x 
Evidence continues to amass on the significant impact of media coverage on suicide. The research literature on the impact of news reports of nonfictional suicides as well as fictional suicide stories is reviewed in order to determine the nature and scope of the influence of the mass media on suicide. 

  • Polanczyk, GV (2017). Many reasons to talk about suicide. Journal of the Brazilian Medical Association, 63 (7), 557-558. doi: 10.1590 / 1806-9282.63.07.557 
"teenage suicide...widely discussed after being portrayed in an American drama series, 13 Reasons Why, which has been watched by many young people...the television drama pose risks, but the community’s interest in the subject is an important opportunity to educate people about suicide."

 Wider Contexts 

Has teenage metal health got worse? and Statistics for suicide and depression

Mental health statistics: UK and worldwide

  • Mental health and behavioural problems (e.g. depression, anxiety and drug use) are reported to be the primary drivers of disability worldwide, causing over 40 million years of disability in 20 to 29-year-olds.2
  • Major depression is thought to be the second leading cause of disability worldwide and a major contributor to the burden of suicide and ischemic heart disease.3
  • It is estimated that 1 in 6 people in the past week experienced a common mental health problem4
Mental health statistics: Suicide

  • In 2016, 5,668 suicides were recorded in Great Britain. Of these,75%were male and25%were female.1   
  • Between 2003 and 2013,18,220people with mental health problems took their own life in the UK.2  
  • Suicide is themost common cause of deathfor men aged 20-49 years in England and Wales.3  
  • One person in fifteen had made a suicide attempt at some point in their life.4
  • The suicide rate in Scotland rose by 8% between 2015 and 2016, with 728 suicides registered in Scotland in 2016.5
Online News Articles

Mental illness soars among young women in England – survey
  • Sexual violence, childhood trauma and pressures from social media are being blamed for dramatic increases in the number of young women self-harming and having post-traumatic stress disorder or a chronic mental illness.
  • An inquiry into the state of mental health in England found alarming evidence that more women aged from 16 to 24 are experiencing mental health problems than ever before
  • Researchers found that more than one in four (26%) of women aged 16 to 24 had anxiety, depression, panic disorder, phobia or obsessive compulsive disorder.
  • Kate Lovett, dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said more research was needed to fully understand the rise in PTSD, but said rape or other sexual abuse were possible triggers. 
  • “This is the first age group that we have had coming to age in the social media age,” Lovett said. “There are some studies that have found those who spend time on the internet or using social media are more likely to [experience] depression, but correlation doesn’t imply causality.”
Stress and social media fuel mental health crisis among girls
  • Girls and young women are experiencing a “gathering crisis” in their mental health linked to conflict with friends, fears about their body image and pressures created by social media, experts have warned.
  • New NHS data obtained by the Guardian reveals that the number of times a girl aged 17 or under has been admitted to hospital in England because of self-harm has jumped from 10,500 to more than 17,500 a year over the past decade – a rise of 68%. The jump among boys was much lower: 26%.
  • Similarly, the number of girls treated in hospital after cutting themselves quadrupled, from 600 to 2,400 over the same period, NHS Digital figures show.
Why are so many of Britain's teen girls struggling with mental health problems? 
  • Former mental health tsar and co-founder of The Self-Esteem Team Natasha Devon says she disagrees with politicians such as Jeremy Hunt blaming social media for young people’s mental health problems.
  • “That passes the buck back to young people and says it’s their fault. I prefer to see social media as a reflection of what’s going on with young people rather than a cause.” She thinks the problems all come from the type of life young people are exposed to in 2017.
  • “We have less community because we’re more individualistic. Parents work longer hours. Everything’s about working harder, getting more and fixing the economy. The price we have paid for living and thinking that way is an effect on our mental health.”
  • “Education policies have squeezed all the things that help mental health like sports, arts, music and dance out of the curriculum in state schools,” she explains. “School has become more stressful.”
Mental Illness is on the rise in the U.S for a frustrating reason
  • More Americans than ever before are suffering from mental and emotional distress, according to a new study. What's more, many lack access to adequate treatment, despite legislation implemented over the last 10 years designed to reduce these gaps in health coverage.
  • Weissman says the recession of 2008 appears to have played a role in the increased prevalence of SPD, but that it was surprising that so many people had not recovered by 2014. “I think they’re trying to get better, but they don’t have the access to treatment options that can help them,” she says. She says the findings may help explain why the U.S. suicide rate has risen to 43,000 people a year.
  • It will require more mental-health screening and education at the primary-care level, providing more assistance to distressed people who can’t manage health care on their own, and exploring ways to make more mental-health professionals available to those who need them most.
Theres a Startling Increase in Major Depression among teens in the U.S
  • According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than three million adolescents aged 12-17 reported at least one major depressive episode in the past year, and more than two million reported severe depression that impeded their daily functioning.
  • Ellen Chance, co-president of the Palm Beach School Counselor Association, says that in her region “anxiety and depression are affecting kids’ behavior and their ability to learn which can lead to dropping out or home school.” Getting resources to these students is essential for them to function in school. She’s working with the National Alliance for Mental Illness to get more counselors trained to identify mental health disorders, but it’s not easy. Counselors are often responsible for more than 500 kids and have other duties as well, often including administering state tests.
  • And California’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, tallied more than 5,000 incidents of suicidal behavior last year.(2015)
13 Reasons why- Letters to parents- Is society more aware of the issue? 
The debate surrounding 13 Reasons Why and whether it deals with the subject of teen suicide tactfully is continuing as it's reported that schools are now issuing letters to parents warning them about the Netflix drama.
One of the letters sent to parents of public school students based in Montclair, New Jersey read: “While the show is fictional, the series is extremely graphic, including several rape scenes, and raises significant concerns about the emotional safety of those watching it.“
Montclair's Public Schools District's mental health and harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) Coordinator, Andrew Evangelista, felt the need to raise awareness after watching the series himself stating “it just didn't seem right.” “There were a lot of questions I had, about how the girl was portrayed and the lack of mental health resources that were available to her.”
A letter sent by administrators at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a private school in New York City, warned parents that students of all ages may be aware of the series. “13 Reasons Why” is rated TV-MA, which stands for Mature Audience Only.
“While the show's producers claim their intent is to start an important dialogue about bullying and suicide, mental health experts have expressed deep concerns about how the show may be perceived as glorifying and romanticizing suicide, and they worry about how it may trigger children who are vulnerable," the letter reads, in part.
Dr. Christine Moutier, a psychiatrist, is the chief medical officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) in New York City. Moutier said she chose to allow her 16-year-old daughter to watch “13 Reasons Why” but is watching each episode with her and allowing time for conversation before watching the next episode.
provided information on hotlines for suicide prevention as well as stressed the availability of school counselors who are "professionally trained and available to students." It's hard not to wonder if this is a direct reaction to the lack of services Hannah received on 13 Reasons Why.
  • http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-13-reasons-why-schools-teachers-20170510-htmlstory.html

Principal at Highland Middle School in Highland, Ill. ERICK BAER

“The target is high school, but it’s edgy, so middle schoolers want to watch it — and they don’t have the same maturity level. At the middle school level, we see kids that are exhibiting depression or suicidal tendencies


 the National Association of School Psychologists had issued a cautionary statement about it, expressing concern of copycat behavior by at-risk young people who watch the show and providing resources for parents to help guide conversations. 
However, the series, which many teenagers are binge watching without adult guidance and support, is raising concerns from suicide prevention experts about the potential risks posed by the sensationalized treatment of youth suicide.


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