TimmyHSpeeding Over Suicide
April 2nd 2008 03:31
Road accidents claim the lives of more Young Australians than any other tragic method. In June of last year the NSW RTA launched a $1.9 million advertising campaign aimed at stopping this trend. The RTA website now boasts that their "Speeding. No one thinks big of you" campaign has been the most successful in the authority's history.
The campaign was aimed specifially at young men, with the "pinkie" gesture used to suggest that speeding drivers lack size below the belt. The effectiveness of this campaign should not be understated, it is indeed admirable.
However, second on the list of causes of death for Young Australians is suicide. What has been done to stop this epidemic? Suicide accounts for around 1/4 of all deaths for those aged 20 - 34 yet is almost never in the public eye.
The danger here is that by ignoring suicide because of its taboo nature, we as a community are putting young people at risk. The solution is to bring suicide to the forefront of people's minds. Why could we not see $2 million spent on advertising youth suicide prevention?
Whilst i appreciate that it may indeed be a difficult topic for many people to confront, when you consider the effectiveness of the "No on thinks big of you campaign" in generating public debate about the social impacts of speeding it seems only logical that if we are indeed concerned about the welfare of Young Australians an advertising campaign could do the same thing for the Issue of suicide.
Much great work is already being done by many organisations across the country to assist young people when they are thinking about doing themselves harm. These organisations should not be overlooked and the fact that government funding is readily available for them is wonderful. But as with speeding, why NOT stuff the issue down our throats? Make us confront it! Have people talking about suicide and raise public awareness of it as a killer of Young Australians. Generation Y will thank us.
The campaign was aimed specifially at young men, with the "pinkie" gesture used to suggest that speeding drivers lack size below the belt. The effectiveness of this campaign should not be understated, it is indeed admirable.
However, second on the list of causes of death for Young Australians is suicide. What has been done to stop this epidemic? Suicide accounts for around 1/4 of all deaths for those aged 20 - 34 yet is almost never in the public eye.
The danger here is that by ignoring suicide because of its taboo nature, we as a community are putting young people at risk. The solution is to bring suicide to the forefront of people's minds. Why could we not see $2 million spent on advertising youth suicide prevention?
Whilst i appreciate that it may indeed be a difficult topic for many people to confront, when you consider the effectiveness of the "No on thinks big of you campaign" in generating public debate about the social impacts of speeding it seems only logical that if we are indeed concerned about the welfare of Young Australians an advertising campaign could do the same thing for the Issue of suicide.
Much great work is already being done by many organisations across the country to assist young people when they are thinking about doing themselves harm. These organisations should not be overlooked and the fact that government funding is readily available for them is wonderful. But as with speeding, why NOT stuff the issue down our throats? Make us confront it! Have people talking about suicide and raise public awareness of it as a killer of Young Australians. Generation Y will thank us.
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