Communitarianism and Suicide Prevention: Proposals for the Year 2000

Crisis ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
David Lester

A review of anthropological, sociological, and psychological theories of suicidal behavior indicates that a disruption in social relationships and a breakdown in community networks increase the risk of suicide. Current suicide prevention tactics fail to address these problems, and suggestions are made for tactics that would focus on the underlying causes of suicide, tactics consistent with a communitarian philosophy and tactics that could guide us into the 21st century.

NASPA Journal ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R Baker

When suicidal behavior is reported, student affairs officers on many campuses notify parents as one component of a multifaceted campus suicide prevention plan. In response to proposals to mandate parent notification, the author argues that practical considerations warrant against expanding state laws to require notification following campus suicide attempts. The recent experience with parent notice at one university confirms the work of earlier researchers who concluded that parents rarely withdraw suicidal students from enrollment. Although a policy of sending the letters may deter further episodes of selfdestructive behavior, parents once alerted to the situation are not likely to intervene in a manner that will reduce significantly the risk of suicide.


Author(s):  
Yujin Han ◽  
He Li ◽  
Yunyu Xiao ◽  
Ang Li ◽  
Tingshao Zhu

(1) Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine suicidal risk factors, the relationship and the underlying mechanism between social variables and suicidal behavior. We hope to provide empirical support for the future suicide prevention of social media users at the social level. (2) Methods: The path analysis model with psychache as the mediate variable was constructed to analyze the relationship between suicidal behavior and selected social macro variables. The data for our research was taken from the Chinese Suicide Dictionary, Moral Foundation Dictionary, Cultural Value Dictionary and National Bureau of Statistics. (3) Results: The path analysis model was an adequate representation of the data. With the mediator psychache, higher authority vice, individualism, and disposable income of residents significantly predicted less suicidal behavior. Purity vice, collectivism, and proportion of the primary industry had positive significant effect on suicidal behavior via the mediator psychache. The coefficients of harm vice, fairness vice, ingroup vice, public transport and car for every 10,000 people, urban population density, gross domestic product (GDP), urban registered unemployment rate, and crude divorce rate were not significant. Furthermore, we applied the model to three major economic development belts in China. The model’s result meant different economic zones had no influence on the model designed in our study. (4) Conclusions: Our evidence informs population-based suicide prevention policymakers that incorporating some social factors like authority vice, individualism, etc. can help prevent suicidal ideation in China.


Author(s):  
Marvin C. Gridley ◽  
Steven H. Walker

The focus of propulsion integration technology in the 21st century will be economy. USAF inlet and nozzle technology goals translate into 50% weight reduction and 25% acquisition cost reduction metrics for new aircraft system. Innovative technology to enable these reductions over current state-of-the-art systems in weight and cost is required. For inlet systems, compact diffusers that reduce system volume by 50% will demand fewer parts and improved aerodynamic performance. Exhaust systems will be fixed with fewer parts, requiring a technology like fluidics, for example, to provide area control and thrust vectoring capabilities. Cooperative programs for both inlet and nozzle systems are in place to insure that technologies required to meet weight and cost reduction goals are matured by the year 2000.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 6121-6139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Iglesias-Suarez ◽  
Douglas E. Kinnison ◽  
Alexandru Rap ◽  
Amanda C. Maycock ◽  
Oliver Wild ◽  
...  

Abstract. Over the 21st century changes in both tropospheric and stratospheric ozone are likely to have important consequences for the Earth's radiative balance. In this study, we investigate the radiative forcing from future ozone changes using the Community Earth System Model (CESM1), with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), and including fully coupled radiation and chemistry schemes. Using year 2100 conditions from the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario, we quantify the individual contributions to ozone radiative forcing of (1) climate change, (2) reduced concentrations of ozone depleting substances (ODSs), and (3) methane increases. We calculate future ozone radiative forcings and their standard error (SE; associated with inter-annual variability of ozone) relative to year 2000 of (1) 33 ± 104 m Wm−2, (2) 163 ± 109 m Wm−2, and (3) 238 ± 113 m Wm−2 due to climate change, ODSs, and methane, respectively. Our best estimate of net ozone forcing in this set of simulations is 430 ± 130 m Wm−2 relative to year 2000 and 760 ± 230 m Wm−2 relative to year 1750, with the 95 % confidence interval given by ±30 %. We find that the overall long-term tropospheric ozone forcing from methane chemistry–climate feedbacks related to OH and methane lifetime is relatively small (46 m Wm−2). Ozone radiative forcing associated with climate change and stratospheric ozone recovery are robust with regard to background climate conditions, even though the ozone response is sensitive to both changes in atmospheric composition and climate. Changes in stratospheric-produced ozone account for ∼ 50 % of the overall radiative forcing for the 2000–2100 period in this set of simulations, highlighting the key role of the stratosphere in determining future ozone radiative forcing.


Author(s):  
Ying-Yeh Chen ◽  
Jacky Wong ◽  
Paul Yip

Since the year 2000, suicide by combustion of barbecue charcoal in an enclosed space has become a common method of suicide in many East Asian countries. The spread of charcoal burning suicides was related to the pervasive media glamorization of the method to be a painless, peaceful, and effective way to end one’s life. Popularity of the internet accompanying its contagious effect further imposes challenges in suicide prevention, in particular, in the prevention of charcoal burning suicides. In areas where charcoal burning has already become a common method of suicide, effective strategies include working with the media to moderate the reporting of suicide news and creating barriers in the purchase of charcoal. In other areas where the method is still not widely known, muting the media reporting of this specific method of suicide to eliminate its ‘cognitive availability’ is key to prevent the seeding of charcoal burning suicides.


Author(s):  
Thomas G. Mahnken

This chapter examines a range of theories that explain why wars occur and how these various explanations of war give rise to different requirements or conditions for peace. It first considers the difficulties involved in studying war before discussing the immediate and underlying causes of war. It then explores explanations of war based on human nature and instinct, along with psychological theories that emphasize misperception and frustration as causes of aggression. It also analyses the ideas of those who find the causes of war in human collectives — states, tribes, and ethnic groups — and those who favour ‘systemic’ rather than ‘unit’ explanations. Finally, it looks at the debate between ‘greed’ and ‘grievance’ as a cause of civil wars as well as wars that occur ‘within’ and ‘beyond’ states.


Crisis ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (S1) ◽  
pp. 4-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hawton

Abstract. Restriction of access to means for suicidal behavior, especially dangerous methods, is a key element in most national suicide prevention strategies. In this paper the rationale for this is discussed, including the fact that suicidal impulses are often brief, that availability of a method may influence both the occurrence and outcome of a suicidal act, and that if a favored means becomes less available it does not always result in substitution by another method. Examples of evidence for the effectiveness of restricting availability of suicidal methods on subsequent suicidal behavior are presented, plus the supporting findings from studies of long-term survivors of serious suicide attempts in which only a minority have gone on to die in subsequent suicide attempts. Finally, factors likely to determine the effectiveness of modifying access to means for suicide are considered, together with the main elements that need to be addressed in evaluation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Alice Baker ◽  
Chris Rojek

The Belle Gibson scandal that broke in 2015 is a testament to the growing phenomenon of lifestyle gurus in the 21st century. In this article, our aim is not to explain the psychology behind Gibson’s lies. Rather, we focus on the social, cultural and technological conditions that enabled Gibson’s persona to flourish and their impact on contemporary understandings of the self. Lifestyle gurus embody the para-social, trading off the appeal of intimacy, authenticity and integrity. We demonstrate how social media have increased the levels of emotional investment, trust and attention capital in para-social relationships by providing ubiquitous access to native experts and creating the platform to achieve influence and micro-celebrity status. Finally, we contend that the growing number of lifestyle gurus providing the public with health advice and scientific knowledge points to the need to examine critically the social and cultural landscape that enables micro-celebrities to emerge.


Author(s):  
Leo Sher

Abstract Predicting and preventing suicide represent very difficult challenges for clinicians. The awareness of adolescent suicide as a major social and medical problem has increased over the past years. However, many health care professionals who have frequent contact with adolescents are not sufficiently trained in suicide evaluation techniques and approaches to adolescents with suicidal behavior. Suicide prevention efforts among adolescents are restricted by the fact that there are five key problems related to the evaluation and management of suicidality in adolescents: 1. Many clinicians underestimate the importance of the problem of adolescent suicidal behavior and underestimate its prevalence. 2. There is a misconception that direct questioning of adolescents about suicidality is sufficient to evaluate suicide risk. 3. Another misconception is that adolescents with non-psychiatric illnesses do not need to be evaluated for suicidality. 4. Many clinicians do not know about or underestimate the role of contagion in adolescent suicidal behavior. 5. There is a mistaken belief that adolescent males are at lower suicide risk than adolescent females. Educating medical professionals and trainees about the warning signs and symptoms of adolescent suicide and providing them with tools to recognize, evaluate, and manage suicidal patients represent a promising approach to adolescent suicide prevention.


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