inedit The messages printed on the scrolls, meant to help students with suicidal thoughts, were dreamed up by a mental health expert
In Japan, toilet paper is used to combat suicidal thoughts among young people. Drawing. — Pixabay
An initiative to both original and surprising has just been set up in universities in the Japanese department of Yamanashi (west of Tokyo): toilet paper with printed suicide prevention messages; s on it. “Dear you, who are having a hard time pretending everything is fine,” reads in blue letters on these white rolls. “You don’t have to tell us everything“ but why not just a little?”
Thousands of rolls distributed to local universities
In addition to this kind of messages written by a health specialist mental health and with suicide prevention phone numbers, soothing images also feature on these toilet papers, such as a rolled up cat. in a ball. Yamanashi authorities distributed 6,000 such rolls in 12 local universities last month.
“ You are alone in the toilet. We felt that it’s times like this that distressing thoughts may come to you. spirit,” a department official, Kenichi Miyazawa, on Monday. As in many other countries, there has been a jump in the number of suicides. found in Japan with the Covid-19 pandemic which has reinforced the isolation of many people. In 2020, nearly 500 children and adolescents gave themselves death in Japan, a national record and almost twice as many as in 2016, according to the Ministry of Health.