Defining Youth Suicide

Author(s):  
Herbert Hendin ◽  
Ann P. Haas ◽  
Jill Harkavy-Friedman ◽  
Maggie Mortali

This chapter looks at suicide among adolescents and young adults. Although true suicide causation is difficult to empirically establish, an accumulated body of research points to a number of individual and environmental factors that have been closely and fairly consistently associated with youth suicidal behaviors. These risk factors are identified and briefly discussed here. The chapter looks the behavioral and environmental factors for suicide. The main aim of this chapter is to examine current youth suicide prevention strategies and interventions with an eye towards identifying what works, what does not appear to work, and what research needs to be undertaken to move the field forward. Given the multiplicity of risk and protective factors that have been related to youth suicide, it is understandable that many different approaches have been taken in the attempt to prevent this behaviour.

2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402110272
Author(s):  
José Eduardo Rodríguez-Otero ◽  
Xiana Campos-Mouriño ◽  
David Meilán-Fernández ◽  
Sarai Pintos-Bailón ◽  
Graciela Cabo-Escribano

Background: Each year, around 800,000 people die by suicide. The prevalence of suicidal behaviors is much higher when suicidal attempts and persistent self-injurious ideation are included. Therefore, suicide is a public health concern. Research has been sensitive to this problem, deepening the study of risk factors and the development of theoretical frameworks of suicidal behavior, with the aim of generating effective suicide prevention policies around the biopsychosocial model. Aim: We aimed to explore the role of relational, community, and social factors in current suicide prevention strategies. Method: Studies of risk and protective factors for suicidal behavior and the consequent development of theoretical frameworks were reviewed to verify if this knowledge was really used in suicide prevention policies. Results: Studies of risk and protective factors focus mainly on the individual, while theoretical frameworks emphasize the role of the relational, community, and social. Suicide prevention strategies more closely follow individual models derived from studies of risk factors. Conclusions: Suicide prevention strategies should broaden their individual narrative to include relational, community, and social interventions as anti-suicide measures.


Author(s):  
Danuta Wasserman ◽  
Vladimir Carli

Evidence has shown that during times of crises, suicide rates can decrease but tend to increase as the crisis alleviates. The consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic, whether direct or indirect, will be far reaching. In this chapter the impact of the pandemic on the risk and protective factors of suicide, grouped according to the socio-ecological model at individual, relationship, community, and society levels, is described. To prevent unnecessary suicides, the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, on health care and public health suicide prevention strategies, and recommendations for implementation are presented.


Author(s):  
Ann P. Haas ◽  
Herbert Hendin ◽  
Jill Harkavy-Friedman ◽  
Maggie Mortali

The concluding chapter of this section on adolescent suicide lists what we have learned and what we still do not know about identifying and treating youths at risk for suicide and preventing suicide in adolescents. Drawing on data presented in earlier chapters of the section, key findings about youth suicide and risk and protective factors are summarized, along with findings about current approaches to prevention and treatment. An agenda for future research is presented that addresses some of the most significant knowledge gaps about youth suicide and suicide prevention. Methodological difficulties that complicate research in this field are briefly discussed. The chapter concludes with summary conclusions to guide future reference and prevention efforts.


Crisis ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maila Upanne

This study monitored the evolution of psychologists' (n = 31) conceptions of suicide prevention over the 9-year course of the National Suicide Prevention Project in Finland and assessed the feasibility of the theoretical model for analyzing suicide prevention developed in earlier studies [ Upanne, 1999a , b ]. The study was formulated as a retrospective self-assessment where participants compared their earlier descriptions of suicide prevention with their current views. The changes in conceptions were analyzed and interpreted using both the model and the explanations given by the subjects themselves. The analysis proved the model to be a useful framework for revealing the essential features of prevention. The results showed that the freely-formulated ideas on prevention were more comprehensive than those evolved in practical work. Compared to the earlier findings, the conceptions among the group had shifted toward emphasizing a curative approach and the significance of individual risk factors. In particular, greater priority was focused on the acute suicide risk phase as a preventive target. Nonetheless, the overall structure of prevention ideology remained comprehensive and multifactorial, stressing multistage influencing. Promotive aims (protective factors) also remained part of the prevention paradigm. Practical working experiences enhanced the psychologists' sense of the difficulties of suicide prevention as well as their criticism and feeling of powerlessness.


Author(s):  
Jose Miguel Giménez Lozano ◽  
Juan Pedro Martínez Ramón ◽  
Francisco Manuel Morales Rodríguez

The present study aims analyze the risk factors that lead to high levels of burnout among nurses and physicians and the protective factors that prevent them. Thus, it is also intended to explore the possible correlation between physical and verbal violence produced at work and the symptoms derived from burnout. Methods: The search was carried out on the Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science databases between 2000 and 2019 (on which date the bibliographic search ends). Descriptive studies estimating the prevalence of workplace violence and risk and protective factors and burnout were included. An adapted version of the Downs and Black quality checklist was used for article selection. 89.6 percent of the studies analysed were in the health sector. There is a significant correlation between burnout symptoms and physical violence at work. On the one hand, the risk factors that moderate this correlation were of structural/organisational type (social support, quality of the working environment, authoritarian leadership, little autonomy or long working days, etc.) and personal type (age, gender, nationality or academic degree, etc.). On the other hand, protective factors were the quality of the working environment, mutual support networks or coping strategies. The results were analysed in-depth and intervention strategies were proposed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4-5 ◽  
pp. 52-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Robinson ◽  
Eleanor Bailey ◽  
Katrina Witt ◽  
Nina Stefanac ◽  
Allison Milner ◽  
...  

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. e053144
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie ◽  
Kwaku Oppong Asante ◽  
Johnny Andoh-Arthur

IntroductionSelf-harm and suicidal behaviour represent major global health problems, which account for significant proportions of the disease burden in low-income and middle-income countries, including Ghana. This review aims to synthesise the available and accessible evidence on prevalence estimates, correlates, risk and protective factors, the commonly reported methods and reasons for self-harm and suicidal behaviour in Ghana.Methods and analysisWe will conduct a systematic review reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement (2009) recommendations. Regional and global electronic databases (African Journals OnLine, African Index Medicus, APA PsycINFO, Global Health, MEDLINE and PubMed) will be searched systematically up to December 2021 for observational studies and qualitative studies that have reported prevalence estimates, correlates, risk and protective factors, methods and reasons for self-harm and suicidal behaviour in Ghana. The electronic database searches will be supplemented with reference harvesting and grey literature searching in Google Scholar and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global for postgraduate dissertations. Only records in English will be included. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (2018) will be used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. Meta-analysis or narrative synthesis or both will be used, contingent on the extent of heterogeneity across eligible observational studies.Ethics and disseminationConsidering that this is a systematic review of accessible and available literature, we will not seek ethical approval. On completion, this review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, be disseminated publicly at (mental) health conferences with focus on self-harm and suicide prevention. The important findings would also be shared with key national stakeholder groups in Ghana: Ghana Association for Suicide Prevention, Ghana Mental Health Authority, Ghana Psychological Association, Centre for Suicide and Violence Research, Accra and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health.Prospero registration numberCRD42021234622.


2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Burns ◽  
George C. Patton

Objective: This review draws on current knowledge of risk for youth suicide to categorise strategies for intervention. Its goal is to identify areas of ‘research need’ and to provide an evidence base to identify ‘best buy’ preventive interventions for youth suicide. Method: The design, development, implementation and evaluation of prevention strategies ranging from clinical interventions to population-based universal approaches are considered within five risk factor domains: individual, family, community, school and peer. Results: There is a paucity of evidence on the effects of interventions targeting depression and suicidal behaviour. Nevertheless, there are effective indicated, selective and universal interventions for important risk factors for depression and suicidal behaviour. Little evidence has emerged to support the efficacy of some traditional approaches to suicide prevention, such as school based suicide education programs and telephone hotlines. Conclusions: Youth suicide prevention strategies in Australia have generally employed traditional approaches that focus on clinical interventions for self-harmers, restricting access to lethal means, providing services to high risk groups and enhancing general practitioner responses. Both program development and research evaluation of interventions for many important risk and protective factors for suicide have been neglected.


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