Posted by Lou Pilder on December 27, 2006, at 17:32:28
In reply to Re: Trade-offs}} Dr. BOB, posted by bottomfeeder on December 27, 2006, at 17:12:42
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> > I've said elsewhere that: The online ventilation of suicidal ideation can be an important part of suicide prevention, and the expression of suicidal thoughts and feelings is not prohibited here. This may enable suicidal posters to receive more effective support, but there are trade-offs: it may also be stressful for other members, attract suicidal posters (and thereby increase the incidence of suicide in the group), and make the group more vulnerable to false reports.
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> Let me get this straight....someone talking about suicide here can be given support and may change their mind, but the "trade-off" is that it can increase the incidence of suicide in the group...hmmmm....so save 1 and maybe lose more than that....is this trade-off worth it Dr. Bob?????Friends,
It is writen here,[...can increase the incidence of suicide in the group...]. The exact wording by Dr. Hsiung was,[..{and thereby} increase the incidence...].
I think that the grammatical structure of Dr. Hsiung's statement could mean something different than,[... that it can increase the incidence...]. I think that there is the potential for Dr. Hsiung's statement, in toto, to have the potential to mean that because there could be more posters of that nature comming into the forum, that the number of suicides could be, as a number, more than if those posters were not attracted to come here. I think that there is the potential to think that Dr. Hsiung's statement is not suggesting a cause and effect , but suggesting an increase in the number due to the increase in the number of posters of that nature.
To try and make this simple without going into statistical inferences and grammatical inferences, we could look at this, if my interpretation is correct, as if the forum attracted by having a separate forum here for, let' say, skydivers and deep-sea divers and mountain climbers and formula-one and stock car NASCAR racers, that we could have an increase in the number of deaths of members, not that the forum caused their deaths.
Lou
poster:Lou Pilder
thread:716057
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20061202/msgs/716754.html