(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-24 10:31

"There's nothing for anyone to do," he said with a shrug. "There's a recreation center for kids, but you have to pay to use it."

In earlier eras, there was steady work at the coal mines. It wasn't an easy life, but it could support a family. Now there are fewer opportunities in Bridgend, 165 miles west of London, and in the surrounding valley towns where many of the deaths have occurred.

Randall has a special page in her honor on the Bebo Web site, a popular social networking site. It uses her nickname and is titled, "RIP Tasha."

Town officials are perplexed about how to intervene. The suicide prevention group, the Samaritans, has increased its visibility, school administrators are holding anti-suicide meetings, and church groups have stepped up their activities.

The director of the local branch of the Samaritans has added community outreach programs and has made it easier for young people to seek confidential help via e-mail or text messages.

"We're doing as much as we can with the volunteers we have," said Darren Matthews, the Samaritans director. "The community is in shock and the people need to grieve because they have lost real people and many people are devastated by these deaths."

He said the suicide rate in south Wales has been rising for the past three years but it is only in the last year that young people have started to take their own lives. In Wales in 2002-2004 -- the most recent period for which full data are available -- there were 22.4 suicides per 100,000 men, compared with 16.7 per 100,000 in England.

"Before people used to not talk about suicide but now everyone is talking about it, asking why are our youngsters killing themselves," he said. "People are asking what they can do. Bridgend has problems -- high unemployment, few job prospects, a high level of illness, but we've never seen something like this before."

Alan Hilfer, the director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York, described what was happening in and around Bridgend as "cluster suicides," which he said were rare and had been seen in the United States in smaller groups.

"Cluster suicides usually occur when there is a lot of publicity," he said. "In vulnerable populations like adolescents, when one of their peers commits suicide, even if it's just someone they vaguely know, this sends the message that suicide is a viable alternative."

Hilfer said the Internet is something professionals worry about because it is hard to track what teens are discussing and how they are reacting.

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