WhackyNation

If you have grown deeply alarmed over the almost daily reports of teen suicides across the nation, that’s good. You should be. Maybe your alarm will encourage you and all those around you to do something positive to help stop what has amounted to a serious national tragedy.

What can you and I — parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends — do to help when we see young persons in deep trouble, youngsters with so much to live for but sliding toward certain trouble or even death? Before we attempt to do anything, we should know the warning signs. For example: Desperation and despair, a marked drop in the quality of school work and a strong dislike for school itself, violent or rebellious behavior, recklessness, unusual belligerence or moodiness, great changes in sleeping or eating habits, a don’t-give-a-damn attitude toward all persons and things, and, of course, recourse to dope and drugs.

Watch out, too, for talk of suicide or “wanting to turn it off,” as teens are likely to say about their immediate environment, their families, or the world, in general. Psychiatrists and therapists warn us to listen when young people talk, not just pretend to be listening.

They also tell us that when we detect one or more of the warning signs, that we do something about them, not simply turn away as if you are disinterested in the youngsters’ welfare. Brooding teen-agers desperately need a friend or an adult they know they can trust to hear their woes. Be a good listener, not a scold.

You should know that there are many available services and resources waiting to help young people in trouble or heading for it. One of those services that can be found in every American city large or small is the always reliable Crisis Clinic, whose number you can find in the phone book.

In addition, new support groups have been organized in every city to help the families and friends of potential suicide victims and, perhaps most important, other teen-agers who may have cultivated the dangerously mistaken notion that suicide is something heroic or glamorous, as well as a glorified way out of problems teens may have.

There is no question that the worst thing we could do would be to shrug our shoulders, say to ourselves that it is none of our business, and come to the conclusion that there is no real problem or that it is somebody else’s problem. That attitude is not only inhumane. It’s deadly.

I think it would be a great idea for each of us to take a serious, direct interest in the Crisis Clinic, where it is located, and the telephone number that should be immediately available to you in the event it is needed. Most Crisis Clinics have both professional and volunteer aides ready to listen to any caller and any case, no matter how trivial it may seem to some persons.

It would also be a good idea to pay a visit to your Crisis Clinic to meet the people who man it and how they handle each case that comes up. I know from personal experience as a reporter that the Clinic and the dedicated people who work there will impress you deeply — and, just maybe, will persuade you to offer your services as a volunteer. Whatever you do, please post the Clinic’s phone number on your bulletin board, right next to the numbers for the police and fire departments.

I was alternately amused and disappointed by a recent Associated Press report that the Microsoft Corporation, based in Bellevue, Washington, and the world’s largest computer-software company, was rated as one of the best places in the United States for mothers to work in.

I was amused, because I thought it was high time that American industries and professions start considering the value of hiring mothers for responsible positions. What a waste of human ability it was in all those earlier years, when most companies frowned on employing too many women, whether they were mothers or not.

The A.P. report quoted Carol Evans, C.E.O. of Working Mother magazine as saying that a growing number of companies are offering customized schedules. “There are some very, very creative ideas,” she added, “and this is all related to what we saw in the past, with women dropping off the edge of a cliff, when they said it’s either working full time or not at all.

“Our country needs women to have babies, our companies need women’s brainpower and time. These two things going together really demand that companies wake up to this new culture.” In praising the companies that have hired many women to good jobs, Ms. Evans said the magazine used five main criteria as the basis for its judgments in honoring those companies that have given mothers special attention: Flexibility, leave time for new parents, child care, elder care, and the number of women occupying top jobs.

My disappointment in the magazine C.E.O.’s announcement came with the fact that she didn’t mention a program I have been pleading for in all American industries, professions, and services. In fact, I tried it on the C.E.O. of the TV/Radio station I served as a commentator and editorial consultant for a dozen years.

Because there were many young, struggling mothers working at the station and having a difficult time arranging day care and schooling for their children, I proposed to the station C.E.O. that he set up a daily day-care facility right at the station so that mothers (and fathers, too) might look in on them at intervals to make sure they were behaving and were being well cared for by professional attendants. He said, “Great idea, but we can’t afford it.”

I then suggested to the C.E.O. that he and other executives at the station appeal to our congressional delegation to support new legislation calling for tax write-offs and other financial benefits for employers who set up daily day-care facilities at their companies to care for employees’ children. Unfortunately, he failed to follow up on my idea.

What a boon the plan would be for mothers who find they have to work to keep families going! At the same time, on-site day-care facilities would give employers an extremely important advantage in hiring competent mothers — women they might not otherwise be able to coax to take a full-time job in their companies.

It should be a relatively easy task for Congress to write such legislation and to provide the incentives employers would need to establish in-house day-care facilities for their working mothers. The law would undoubtedly encourage employers across the nation to find space for such facilities.