By Martina McGrath. Rebels, misfits, outsiders, troublemakers and agitators have a lot to answer for. People with a lived experience of ‘difference’ throughout history have always been the movers and shakers of significant and often times transformative social change. In Australia, one recent example of this came when Australia voted for marriage equality in 2017.… Continue reading The Census makes no sense: Count us in
By John Gunn. In 1971 the anti-litter organization Keep America Beautiful released the “Crying Indian” ad. In it, Iron Eyes Cody, an actor dressed in Native American clothing, paddles a canoe along a waterway that is polluted. As he arrives on shore, a bag is thrown from a passing car and it explodes, scattering more… Continue reading Let us shift the focus of suicide prevention away from the individual and to the society
By Laura del Carpio. When COVID-19 hit and the world was suddenly turned upside down, I was in the middle of transcribing a series of interviews as part of my research. This work looks at the experiences of adolescents who have faced a bereavement (i.e. the death of someone significant) by suicide or other causes,… Continue reading When the world is already turned upside down: Grief and bereavement during a pandemic
By Kate LaForge. In her brilliant book exploring suicidality among Inuit youth, Lisa Stevenson [1] writes: It became evident to me that presuming the value of life, staging it as the ultimate good, could be as dangerous as negating it. If listening to the pain in the lives of suicidal youth is only a means… Continue reading Taking uncertainty about life and death seriously
By Tyler R. Pritchard. Suicide is a complex phenomenon that is influenced by multiple interacting factors. Indeed, it can be overwhelming as an early career suicidologist trying to understand suicide and support those struggling. I, and many others, have the opportunity to have suicide be a part of our research, clinical work, and personal history.… Continue reading On Recent Criticisms of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide
By Katerina Kavalidou. The linguistic and attitudinal changes within self-harm research have been very welcoming in the last years, with studies highlighting that through the last two decades suicide-specific journals, such as Crisis, Archives of Suicide Research, and Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior have managed to reduce the use of stigmatising language for those with lived… Continue reading The welcoming changes in self-harm research and next steps
By Kealagh Robinson. Adolescence is a critical developmental period for self-harm research and intervention. Self-injury, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal behaviours often begin during adolescence [1, 2], and adolescent self-harm predicts poorer psychological outcomes in adulthood [3, 4]. Many adolescents regularly attend secondary schools, making these pragmatic recruitment sites for adolescent research participants. Secondary schools themselves… Continue reading Tips for partnering with secondary schools to conduct self-injury and suicide research
By Erik Reinbergs. Firearms are ubiquitous in the United States. However, few people here are aware that most gun deaths in the US are suicides. Young people are not exempt. Firearms account for roughly 46% of suicides in the United States for young people ages 0-24 – nearly 3,000 deaths per year – making guns… Continue reading Firearm Lethal Means Counseling in Schools
By Allison E. Bond. What do we know about firearms and suicide? In the United States (US), firearms are the most commonly used and most lethal method for suicide1.Additionally, suicides account for two-thirds of all gun deaths in the US1. The presence of firearms in the home is associated with a 3-5x increase in the… Continue reading Firearms and suicide: What we know, what we can do, and steps forward
By Austin J. Gallyer. Last year for World Suicide Prevention Day, I wrote about how we have little evidence — for or against—differences in the functioning of the brains of those who experience suicidality. The reason for this was that existing studies that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and/or electroencephalography (EEG) were severely underpowered… Continue reading Can We Use EEG to Find Brain Differences in Those Experiencing Suicidality?
By Rosie Pendrous. A review of 94 papers published between 2000 and 2018 estimated that approximately 8.4% of women and 2.2% of men experienced an eating disorder (ED) – including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and other specified feeding, and binge eating disorder – in their lifetime[1]. Global statistics also suggested that the… Continue reading Eating disorders and suicide: What does the research say?
By Holly Crudgington. What do you think of when you hear the word ‘school’? The word might have many connotations, depending on who you ask. Context matters. Personally, it brings back some fond and some difficult memories of being a teenager at a public secondary school in the UK. It’s been over 10 years since… Continue reading “I get by with a little help from my friends”: Adolescent peer friendship networks and self-harm
By Kenvil Souza. There are so many memories I have from my childhood. When I think back, I remember the pet chicken that I called “beauty” when I was in primary school. My mother let me keep her in spite of us living in a tiny flat. She would stay on the balcony, and I’d… Continue reading “There are two sides to my childhood”: Positive childhood experiences in the face of adversity
By Faraz Mughal. We all know how serious self-harm is, and self-harm in young people is no different. Recent findings using electronic general practice patient records showed an increase in self-harm recorded in general practice in young people, particularly in girls aged 13-16.[1] In terms of healthcare utilisation: in the National Health Service young people… Continue reading Young people’s experiences of general practice for self-harm
By Joeri Vandewalle. There is growing recognition that family involvement is important in the care and treatment of people with suicidal ideations. Family members can provide valuable information about their relatives [1], engage in safety planning [2], and offer support to reduce their relatives’ loneliness [3]. Moreover, family members can support continuity of care by… Continue reading Stories from the side-lines: family members’ expectations of care and treatment for their relatives with suicidal ideations
By Valerie J. Douglas. It is not a secret that I love animals. I’ve been teased by colleagues and friends for having a small petting zoo in my apartment- a bird, a dog, and a cat somehow living (relatively) harmoniously. These critters bring great joy to my life, even when they won’t stop screeching when… Continue reading Are fluffy and fido keys to suicide prevention? The role of pets
By Grace Cully. “Because the support I had from the members of the crisis team … I had promised them that if I did feel … that I’m getting down, or I would do something … then I promised I would call somebody. Which I did the same day.” [1] Over the course of my… Continue reading The need for timely, comprehensive and compassionate care: Experiences of aftercare following high-risk self-harm
By Hazel Marzetti. As suicide researchers we inevitably think about suicide (virtually) every day. We spend our time reading, writing and thinking about the saddest and darkest times in other people’s, and sometimes our own, lives. We want to understand these experiences, we want to improve these difficult times, and we want to enhance the… Continue reading Please put your own mask on first, before helping others: Taking care of suicide researcher’s mental health and wellbeing
By Meryem Betul Yasdiman. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.Victor Frankl People face challenging, sometimes life-changing, experiences throughout their life. These experiences can include losing a loved one, problems at work, a severe illness, natural disasters, or other situations that bring negative emotions. Such stressful… Continue reading Finding benefits after adversity: Post-traumatic growth and its association with suicidal thoughts
By Kerry Hozhabrafkan. I have a vivid memory of being at university during my midwifery training, listening to the lecturer describe a case study which had been chosen to support our learning. It was the tragic story of a woman who had recently become a mother for the first time and became rapidly unwell. The… Continue reading Including women and healthcare professionals in conversations about perinatal suicide
netecr.org 