Aug. 17, 2011 - Issue #826: Ice Cream
Vuepoint
Reporting on suicide
The death of Winnipeg Jets forward Rick Rypien—who will be better remembered as a member of the Vancouver Canucks—was a tragedy. The 27-year-old hockey player, who had recently signed a one-year deal with the Jets and was looking forward to a fresh start after a rocky few years in Vancouver, will be remembered for his pugilism, his fearlessness and his personal problems.
Rypien took his first leave of absence from the Vancouver Canucks during the 2008-09 season. The reason given, at the time, was that it stemmed from a string of injuries he'd suffered. After shoving a fan in a 2010 game in Minnesota and taking a second leave of absence, rumours swirled that Rypien was struggling with mental health issues.
Though it's not been said outright, it's likely that Rypien took his own life. The police in his hometown of Crowsnest Pass and hockey media all over the world are referring to the death as "sudden but not suspicious"—a near-transparent code for suicide. But is such a code necessary?
His mental health issues were kept quiet by his team and the media out of respect for the player, and it's likely that the cause of death is being quieted for the same reason, but it does a great disservice to the millions of Canadians living with similar issues to continue to treat mental illness as if it is something to be hushed up, to be ashamed of.
There is a general rule in the media that suicides aren't to be reported on. It's thought that reporting on a suicide could lead to copycats. If this is the case, however, why report on any crime at all? Why report a murder? Why report on rape or bank robbery? Is there no fear that others will commit similar crimes?
We do not treat mental health in this country the way it ought to be treated: depression and other mental illnesses should be as normalized as diabetes, as normalized as any chronic health problem that needs to be managed so it doesn't become debilitating or, worse, fatal.
We know what treatments alleviate the symptoms of mental illness; we need to remove the stigma of the disease so that there is no shame in accessing them. Suicide kills more people per year than motor vehicle collisions—aren't those lives worth something? It will take courage to change our society, but the benefit is great and the cost is a change in thinking.
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