There’s been discussion here — and in an oped by Lawrence Harmon in yesterday’s Globe — about comments made by Dr. Susan Swick at Newton South last week about suicide not being contagious. Here’s the quote by Swick , Newton Wellesley Hospital’s chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, that’s been getting all the attention:
“Suicide is not contagious…. It’s not like the flu. It’s not norovirus. You can’t catch it. It doesn’t travel through a community in that way.’’
But as School Committee member Steve Siegel noted here, Swick’s comments were more nuanced than the reports or that excerpt suggests. So I decided to go back and review the video from Tuesday’s parent meeting at South. I suggest watching from when Swick begins her comments at about the 9 minute mark. Her comments about suicide being contagious start at the 12:30 mark.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201208/when-suicides-come-in-clusters
FYI, the video has be updated to fix some technical issues.