"Any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind......"
John Donne - `For whom the Bells Tolls'.
Death by suicide is a tragedy that needs to be addressed separately from
the
issues surrounding the prevention a child's on going contact with an
abusive
parent. Research does show without doubt, that when people have
relation****p
breakdowns they are most at risk. That, combined with other issues,(that
may
or may not have contributed to the relation****p failure), proves too much
for some. But we do not know in what combination and what role each or any
of these factors played.
We believe that all the social problems that beset our community need to
be
addressed and that funding must be made available for suicide research. If
that can be done, quality of life will improve for all and relation****ps,
especially within the family unit, will flourish and the overall rate of
suicide will diminish.
In the meantime, the safety of children after separation cannot be
compromised and quantum leaps of conjecture in the absence of factual
sup****tive evidence, serve no other purpose than to mislead and
misrepresent
the situation.
Male suicide and the Family Court
The motivations of men who kill themselves in the context of family law
disputes may vary, and some may have little to do with the involvement of
the Family Court, perceived injustice, involuntary loss of contact with
one's
children, and so on. They may be expressions of grief or loss to do with
the
loss of the relation****p, symptoms of mental illness, or have other
causes.In short, the claim that "five men a day kill themselves because of
the Family Court or CSA" proves to be a true.
Male suicide figures Wesley Mission & ABS
2150 males committed suicide in 1999 - 1998. This figure is relatively
constant over a period of time. In this study 40% are in the 24 - 50 age
group. = 2.3 per day(this includes the high rate of Aboriginal suicide due
to quite other reasons probably and rural and remote area suicides, NT
having the highest rate of all..) 70% are attributed to relation****p
breakdowns ( not necessarily family court and children involved but no
figures on that) = 1.6 per day. For every male suicide completion there
are
5 attempts. For every female completion there are 35 attempts. Men use
decisive methods, hanging, firearms etc, women use more passive ie drug/
prescription overdose.
Male suicide and marriage breakdown
Male suicide is a real problem and should be funded, researched and
managed
to reduce it. BUT men have been suiciding at a rate of four men to every
one
woman SINCE the 1920's when statistics began. The biggest exception to
this
was the Second World War when suicide rates dropped the most and the
1960's
when male suicides dropped and female suicides rose to the ratio of 2 male
to one female. So other factors are causing it. The number one correlation
of spikes of suicides in men is with economic downturns
Marital Breakdown, Parenthood and Suicide
This is a particularly valuable study in that it identified people who
were
separated from various other categories of suicide. Statistics normally
classify people as married, single, divorced or widowed, which creates the
problem that people in the high-risk separated group get classified as
married, thereby creating misleading outcomes both for the married group,
who would appear at increased risk, and the separated group, on whom no
accurate data had been available, but whom are shown here at extreme risk.
The Effects of Marital Separation on Men - 10 Years On
The most traumatic period for separated men was at the time of separation.
It was established that living alone was the main predictive factor of who
would find coping with marital separation difficult. Of significance in
this
research was the extent to which the men valued their relation****ps and
their children. Unfortunately it- would seem they did not spend the effort
and time necessary to maintain and nurture the relation****p prior to
separation, or maybe that they did not know how to or that they were
reluctant or unwilling to seek outside assistance.
Child Sup****t - The Financial Cost to the Taxpayer
In the course of our investigation, PIR has become aware that fathers and
family law reform groups have consistently re****ted over many years that
relation****p breakdown and the resultant involvement of the Child Sup****t
Agency is a major contributory factor to the suicide or death from stress
related illness of paying parents. Some groups claim that the mortality
rate
of child sup****t payers is likely to be higher than the suicide figures
alone suggest; with for example the divorce age group being the only age
group showing an increase in fatal car accidents and it also being an age
group with significant health issues...there can be little doubt that the
very high death rate amongst CSA clients is due to the high suicide rate
among paying parents.
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