Woman Worker With ‘Suicides Anonymous’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 2

Woman Worker With ‘Suicides Anonymous’

“Suicides Anonymous” seemed a harsh word to describe a voluntary organisation which aimed to help people in difficulties but “we live in a hard world”, said Mrs Mavis Bennett, a visitor from Johannesburg who works for the organisation in her home town.

Working along the lines of “Life-line” in New Zealand, the organisation deals with people whose loneliness and desperation has driven them to a last resort. “The majority ring to say they want to commit suicide,” said Mrs Bennett.

The movement was begun in Johannesburg 11 years ago, by a man whose friend had committed suicide because he had no one to turn to when he most needed a friend. Johannesburg had expand-

ed rapidly since the war and had often been described as “a concrete jungle,” said Mrs Bennett People lived in a difficult and tense business world and often did not have the time or opportunity to talk about their difficulties.

Figures released at a world conference of the Good Samaritan Society, attended by Mrs Bennett in England in 1964, rated Johannesburg’s suicide rate as the second highest in the world. Because it is a voluntary organisation, finance is limited, and most of its work is conducted over the telephone. Assistants work around the clock to help people to help themselves. “If we were to follow our cases, we would need institutional care, but because finance is not readily available, we must remain a telephone organisation," said Mrs Bennett.

One telephone chat was usually enough to help people in their moment of crisis. Assistants remained anony-

mous and for this reason, voluntary helpers were difficult to obtain. “Human nature being what it is, people want to be personally involved with their clients,” said Mrs Bennett. Long years of training as a hypnotherapist have taught Mrs Bennett to look objectively into the troubled minds of others. It helps her to advise them how to sort out their troubles, and she can sense their weaknesses from their conversation. Housewives in South Africa who have domestic help find they have a lot of time on their hands, said Mrs Bennett, who first began studying hypnotherapy because she was interested in people. “I love studying their minds.” The medical profession in South Africa was slow to recognise the value of hypnotherapy—or curing through hypnosis, said Mrs Bennett Hypnosis in show work is particularly abhorrent to Mrs Bennett, who describes it as “meddling in other peoples’ minds.” Stage shows of this nature are already banned in England but they are still prevalent in other countries. The medical profession in England was more aware of the dangers and the benefits of the art, she said.

South Africa was a wonderful country in which to live. The climate in Johannesburg was perfection—high altitude, warm days and cool evenings. “But we live in a difficult country, too. Black Africans are not ready for independence and 90 per cent of them do not want it “For many years now, I have had an African girl who comes to do my weekly ironing. Even though she has seen me use my electric iron dozens of time, she will not use the iron unless she is wearing a snake skin—because the iron is evil,” said Mrs Bennett.

"Africans are still very much under the power of their chiefs, who victimise their people. Although they do not realise it, the African people have more freedom under a white Government. “Education of the African is a gradual process. It will take hundreds of years to dispel their unhealthy superstitions.”