The UK's first suicide prevention minister is being urged to take action on 'irresponsible' portrayals of suicide in the media.
Jackie Doyle-Price was announced last week as the UK's first suicide prevention minister during a government-sponsored mental health summit to coincide with World Mental Health Day.
The Care Not Killing campaign group is concerned that careless representations of suicide may be leading to copycat behaviour and is calling upon Mrs Doyle-Price to clamp down on media organisations that glorify suicide.
Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director of Care Not Killing, said young people were especially at risk of engaging in copycat behaviour.
'Those most affected appear to be young people and the risk seems to be greater when there is a feeling of identification, such as in the case of a celebrity death by suicide, or the death by suicide of an attractive fictional character,' he said.
He said the media should heed advice from the World Health Organisation and Samaritans urging caution in how suicides are reported or portrayed in the media.
He called upon Mrs Doyle-Price to engage with TV show makers and media outlets to remind them that 'irresponsible portrayal can cost lives'.
Similar concerns have been voiced in the US, where the impact of suicide on TV became a talking point after Netflix aired its controversial drama, '13 Reasons Why'.
In the popular teen drama, high school student Hannah Baker takes her own life and leaves audio recordings explaining the 13 reasons why she committed suicide.
A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine later found that Google searches relating to suicide rose by almost 20 per cent in the first 19 days after the show aired.
The families of two California teenagers who committed suicide last year have pointed the finger at the show. Bella Herndon and Priscilla Chiu, who did not know each other, took their own lives just days apart in April 2017. The families of the girls, who were both 15, said they had watched '13 Reasons Why' in the days before their deaths.
At the time, Netflix issued a statement defending the show and saying it had opened up dialogue around mental health issues: 'Our hearts go out to these families during this difficult time. We have heard from many viewers that 13 Reasons Why has opened up a dialogue among parents, teens, schools and mental health advocates around the difficult topics depicted in the show.
'We took extra precautions to alert viewers to the nature of the content and created a global website to help people find local mental health resources.'
