By Martina McGrath. Here in Australia social change in relation to suicide prevention is occurring; and it is not without its struggles. The suicide prevention peer workforce (SP Peer Workforce) is emerging as is noted in Hawgood et al [1]. Alongside its emergence is the development and growth of non-clinical alternatives to care for people… Continue reading For the love of language, can we talk about that?
By Valerie Douglas Often, when one thinks of the words “discrimination” or “stigmatization” our mind will wander to identity groups who when we hear in the news about the systematic and overt discrimination they face makes us want to tweet, “What century do we live in, again???”. Western society has, overall, come to agree that… Continue reading The importance of remembering weight in suicide prevention
By Emma Nielsen Language: the source of much debate Talking matters; we want people to be having helpful, open and compassionate conversations about suicide. A central aspect of supporting this is developing a comprehensive, clear and evidence-based understanding of what language people find acceptable, and what is not acceptable, when doing the talking. Here, it… Continue reading What’s okay to say? The acceptability of language used to talk about suicide
By Olivia Kirtley. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Last week the World Health Organization (WHO) released the first ever World Suicide Report, showing that around 800,000 people die by suicide each year. In fact, around the world, one person will die by suicide every 40 seconds, which means in the time it’s taken me… Continue reading Suicide Prevention: We Need Everyone
By Olivia Kirtley. As a child, I grew up watching the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on TV and feeling a tremendous sense of excitement as these famous scientists submerged PhD students in ice water baths, cuddled lemurs and dissected brains, all in the name of public engagement with science. During my PhD, I’ve been on… Continue reading We need to talk about *******: Public engagement for “taboo” topics
By Olivia Kirtley. It is estimated that more than 800,000 individuals die globally each year as a result of suicide and for those aged 15-29 years old, suicide is the second leading worldwide cause of death after road traffic accidents 1. But we don’t whisper about car accidents, or exchange sideways glances when someone mentions… Continue reading The S Word: Talking About Suicide
By Tiago Zortea. Ten years ago, in the second year of my undergraduate course in Psychology, I came across a short book chapter that caused me to rethink many of the ways in which I understood mental health: The actress, the priest, and the psychoanalyst: The knife sharpeners, written by the Brazilian Professor of Social… Continue reading On sharpening knives, stigma and mental health
By Emma Nielsen. We all say things that we don’t mean sometimes. Perhaps the time that you snapped at the end of a long day or said that deliberately hurtful comment in the heat of an argument. Sometimes these instances are easily recognisable (perhaps easily apologised for). However, often our language conveys more subtle messages… Continue reading Mind your ‘C’s and ‘S’s: The Language of Self-harm and Suicide (and why it matters)
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