By Emma Nielsen. There is always a to-do list on my desk. It is usually scrawled across a scrap piece of paper, often elaborately highlighted and probably makes little sense to anyone else. But it is always there and it makes sense to me. It means that in times when I am overwhelmed or bouncing… Continue reading Does one size fit all? Adapting Safety Planning Intervention with and for autistic adults
By Madhav Bhargav. Natural selection will never produce in a being any structure more injurious than beneficial to that being, for natural selection acts solely by and for the good of each. No organ will be formed for the purpose of causing pain or for doing an injury to its possessor.Charles Darwin Recently, more humans… Continue reading Suicide Ideation: A pivotal precursor to understanding suicide in young adults
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Katherine Bird. Self-harm (any self-injury or -poisoning regardless of intent) is a significant public-health concern, affecting between 18.8% and 50% of young people under 25-years [1; 2]. The concern relates to the physical harm, emotional distress, and reduced mental health and wellbeing self-harm causes. Most concerningly, self-harm is the most significant predictor of death… Continue reading Examining the pathway to self-harm in high-risk youth using a novel Card Sort Task for Self-Harm (CaTS): It’s time to change how self-harm is assessed
By Katerina Kavalidou and Alessio Albanese. The United Nations’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has recently published an annual Global Trends Report showing that currently, nearly 79.5 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide. Whilst the majority are internally displaced (around 46 million), 26 million are refugees and 4.2 million are asylum seekers [1]. Though often discussed together,… Continue reading Self-harm and suicide among asylum seekers and refugees: A call to researchers
By Justine Dickhoff. The role of the brain in suicide Our brain is one of the most fascinating organs. Even though it only makes up 3% of our body weight it keeps our body running all day. It helps us to accomplish our work, go from place to place and let us understand when a… Continue reading How studying the brain can help us to reduce suicide
By John F. Gunn III. I have always had an interest in theoretical perspectives of suicide – so much so that I convinced David Lester to edit a book on the topic with me [1]. I even attempted my own supposition on a theoretical framework some years ago [2]. However, as I developed as a… Continue reading Suicide in Context: How Bioecological Theory Could Advance Theories of Suicide
By Cheryl Hunter. Have you ever spoken to someone who lived with ongoing suicidal thoughts and feelings? How would you know for sure that you haven’t? According to a community survey, one in five people experience suicidal thoughts at some point in their lifetime, and one in fifteen people act to end their own lives.… Continue reading “The burden of telling”: how our responses can silence people who live with suicidal thoughts, feelings and acts
This blog post discusses what is going on behind the scenes of a co-produced project (conducted in the UK) exploring how people experience being assessed for risk of suicide by their General Practitioners (GPs). Phil and three other volunteers are working alongside Sophia to develop the project and create a series of blogs to document… Continue reading Our journey so far: Co-producing a project about people’s experiences of being assessed for risk of suicide by their General Practitioners
By Piumee Bandara Earlier this year, I found myself deep in Sri Lanka’s lush, leafy suburbs, knocking on doors for an interview. I was there with a team of local researchers to gather information from people primarily about adverse experiences in childhood and current experiences of domestic violence. My aim, to gain a better understanding… Continue reading Researching domestic violence and suicidal behaviour in Sri Lanka
By Laura del Carpio and Abigail Paterson The Citizenship, Recovery, and Inclusive Society Partnership (CRISP) programme [1], led by the University of Strathclyde, has brought together leading academic institutions and third sector organisations from across the EU and the USA to share knowledge on approaches to social inclusion and mental health. As a result of… Continue reading Approaches to suicide in Finland: Reflections from an international secondment
By Austin J. Gallyer The Problem Suicide is an international public health crisis. In the United States (U.S.), the suicide rate increased by 33% from 1999 to 2017 [1], and in Scotland, the suicide rate increased by about 15% from 2017 to 2018 [2]. Because of this large public health burden, scientists have conducted research… Continue reading The need for a “Psychological Science Accelerator” in suicide research
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 Donna Littlewood on behalf of members from the PPI group - Mutual Support for Mental Health The following responses were provided by members of ‘Mutual Support for Mental Health’ the lived experience advisory panel for the Centre for Mental Health and Safety at the University of Manchester. What are the key things you would… Continue reading Advice on involving people with experiential knowledge in suicide and self-harm research.
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