Educational Media Reviews Online

This excerpt from a Canadian news program called Magazine, hosted by Brian Stewart, a Canadian news anchor, attempts to promote public awareness of the causes and consequences of elderly suicide. The program presents three case studies and includes interviews with patients, their relatives, and two physicians who provide insights into depression of the elderly patient. Through anecdotal and personal reflections, both patients and psychiatrists try to explain the complex reasons for suicidal desires, and express the need for society to provide intervention and prevention.

Three patients who had attempted suicide are interviewed, and follow-up treatment is discussed: a woman who could not cope with the deep depression after her husband died; a male retiree in the midst of divorce living alone; and a woman who endured many family illnesses and deaths and lost the desire to live. Treatment options included medication, occupational therapy, counseling and electroconvulsive shock therapy, along with support from family members.

This documentary is not an in-depth study but simply a short awareness piece you might see on any television news program. The technical quality is adequate, and the program is well balanced between interviews and commentary from the narrator. It would enhance any public library collection or special health sciences collection, but might not be as appropriate for the four-year academic library collection, given its scope and lack of depth. Hospital or medical school libraries might find it useful for incorporation into classroom discussion on the topic of suicide or aging.