In a case that has sent shock waves across the globe, a South African mother, Lauren Dickason, has gone on trial in New Zealand for the murder of her three young daughters. Picture: Supplied.
Editorial
Johannesburg - Dr Lauren Dickason is standing trial for the 2021 murder of her three daughters in New Zealand, soon after emigrating from Pretoria with them and her orthopaedic surgeon husband Graham.
Dickason was deeply depressed, so much so that her advocate will argue that her state was such that she was wholly irrational and could not see the consequences of her acts: throttling her 2-year-old twins Karla and Maya and 6-year-old Liané with cable ties before smothering them to death when that didn’t work.
The source of Dickason’s depression could have been post-partum, compounded by the fear of living in South Africa, which then morphed into the strain of emigrating in the middle of one of the worst public health crises in living memory. Whatever the case, as we report today, the country is a mental health time bomb.
Debt, unemployment, load shedding, the spiralling cost of living, rampant crime and a tsunami of negativity across social media and the news, both locally and abroad, create a fertile ground for despondency and deep despair.
There are many symptoms of this, including alcohol and drug abuse, absenteeism and now “presenteeism”, where people arrive at work but can’t focus on the task at hand. And then there are the more sinister by-products: domestic and gender-based violence, self-harm and suicide.
There are many people who should be taking the lead in resolving all of this ‒ our politicians, our pastoral leaders, our bosses, human resource staff ‒ but the truth is everyone is affected; everyone has a backstory of difficulty, family challenges, hardship.
Instead, the solution can only lie with all of us. We are because of one another. We can’t immediately solve everyone’s problems but we can make a concerted effort not to add to them by our acts. Whenever you are in doubt about what to do, just be kind.
It could literally save someone’s life.