TORRINGTON – The wildly popular Netflix special, “13 Reasons Why”, is making waves on a national and local level due to its portrayal of suicide. Controversy surrounds the series, however, as opponents believe it glorifies the act of taking one’s life.
“13 Reasons Why” – which first aired on March 31 – details the fictional aftermath and events leading up to a high school student’s suicide, touching on the topics of underage alcohol and drug use, bullying and rape.
Lynette Saucedo – Goshen County Community prevention specialist for The Prevention Management Organization of Wyoming and the Goshen County Comprehensive Community Coalition; addressing Alcohol, Tobacco, Other Drugs and Suicide Prevention – used the word “concerning” to describe the series.
“’13 Reasons Why’ is a very concerning series as it does not use safe messaging methods or evidence-based prevention strategies to educate youth and adults on suicide prevention and identifying someone in crisis,” Saucedo said. “Instead, ‘13 Reasons Why’ romanticizes and sensationalizes the topic of suicide and mental health. There are no ‘do-overs’ in suicide – you can’t undo dead. The person that dies by suicide doesn’t get to watch those people in their lives look back on the situation. There really are few concrete facts depicted in the series and little reality, as far as, all of the many factors that can lead to this type of crisis.”
Saucedo added the series is also very graphic – including scenes depicting rape and suicide – which may further traumatize those who are struggling or
in crisis.
“I will say that the talking points provided at the end of the series are decent ones,” she said. “The issue is that they are not provided at the beginning and saturated throughout the episodes. If Netflix and the series’ producers really wanted to have, as they say, ‘started a conversation’, educated and provided prevention strategies to the general public, what they should have done was develop toolkits with the collaboration of nationally recognized mental health and suicide prevention experts such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (www.afsp.org), the American Association of Suicidology (www.suicidology.org ), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (www.samhsa.gov), etc; and provided those toolkits to school districts, churches and other youth-serving organizations to educate their youth, families and the general community in preparation for the series. Then release the series in a documentary format.”
While the producers of “13 Reasons Why” may have missed an opportunity to properly educate and inform in the opinion of mental health professionals, that doesn’t mean there aren’t resources available to the general public in Goshen County and beyond.
“Goshen County is not unlike most of the state of Wyoming, in that access to care and available mental health services is not as abundant as many urban areas,” Saucedo said. “Having said that, those in our county that provide these services do an excellent job with the resources they have. Take all signs seriously. I would strongly encourage anyone concerned about a student to trust your gut and contact that student’s school counselor
