Awareness and Attitude Toward Suicide in Community Mental Health Professionals and Hospital Workers

Kim, Soung-Nam; Lee, Kang‐Sook; Lee, Seon-Young; Yu, Jin; Hong, A-Rum

doi:10.3961/jpmph.2009.42.3.183

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Common suicide triggers were reported somewhat similar to earlier studies[2231] such as disturbed interpersonal relationship, small family, weak personality, cultural inhibitions in emotional expression, and national instability. Again in line with earlier studies,[89] nearly half of our participants opined for the common association of mental illness and broken homes with suicide attempters.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Medical students′ attitude toward suicide attempters

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background:Majority of health professionals have unfavorable attitudes toward the patients presenting with self-harm, which further compromises their therapeutic endeavors and outcomes.Objectives:This study was aimed to assess the medical students' attitudes toward suicide attempters.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care medical institute of Haryana, a Northern state of India. Two hundred and five final year medical students were recruited through total enumeration method. “Suicide Opinion Questionnaire” was administered to assess their attitudes toward suicide attempters.Results:Only minority had previous exposure of managing any suicidal patient and attended suicide prevention programs. Majority agreed for suicide attempters being lonely and depressed. Nearly half of the students reported small family, disturbed interpersonal relationship, weak personality, self-punishment approach, cultural inhibitions in emotional expression, national instability, and disbelief in afterlife, as a major push to attempt suicide. Compared to boys, girls reported the greater contribution of weak personality and self-destructive behaviors and lesser contribution of family disturbances and religious convictions as suicide triggers. They held favorable attitude for only one-third of the attitudinal statement, and they were uncertain for two-third of the attitudinal statements.Conclusions:Such a high proportion of uncertain responses imply toward lack of awareness and clinical expertise for managing suicide attempters. It also signifies the urgent need for enhancing their educational and clinical exposure, to improve their attitudes toward patients presenting with self-harm.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…[1415] Its psychometric properties have been established,[14161718] and it has been widely used. [192021222324]…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical students′ attitude toward suicide attempters

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most of the studies have described health professionals’ attitudes toward suicide and suicide attempters[10111213141516] rather than suicide prevention. [61718] With our best efforts we could not find any of such study from India.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nursing students′ attitude toward suicide prevention

Nebhinani¹,

Mamta²,

Gaikwad

et al. 2013

Ind Psychiatry J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background:Preventing suicide depends upon different health professionals’ knowledge regarding suicide, attitude toward suicide attempters, skills to assess and manage suicidal risk.Objectives:This study was aimed to assess the attitude of nursing students toward suicide prevention.Materials and Methods:308 nursing students were recruited from the two institutions through total enumeration method. Attitude toward suicide prevention scale was administered. Study design was cross-sectional.Results:Majority were single females, from urban locality, who were pursuing BSc Nursing with the mean age of 20 years. Only minority had previous exposure to suicide prevention programs or workshops. Nearly half of the subjects had positive attitude toward working with suicidal patients. Again half of the subjects considered unemployment and poverty as main causes of suicide and were quite hopeless about it and they also perceived that most of the suicidal people would not reveal their suicidal plans to others.Conclusions:Merely half of the students had positive attitude toward working with suicidal patients. Hence, there is strong need to organize more educational and training programs on suicide prevention so that these budding health professionals could be more equipped and trained to manage these suicidal patients.

show abstract

“…Some of these attitudinal differences may be true of all types of health professionals, so further studies that administer the SPAS to non-psychiatric clinicians would be needed to determine the extent to which these differences in attitudes about suicide are specific to psychiatric clinicians. Some studies from other countries that compare the attitudes and knowledge about suicide between mental health professionals and other types of health professionals report that mental health professionals have less negative attitudes [12-14], but this has not, as yet, been done in China…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-sectional study of attitudes about suicide among psychiatrists in Shanghai

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundAttitudes and knowledge about suicide may influence psychiatrists’ management of suicidal patients but there has been little research about this issue in China.MethodsWe used the Scale of Public Attitudes about Suicide (SPAS) – a 47-item scale developed and validated in China – to assess knowledge about suicide and seven specific attitudes about suicide in a sample of 187 psychiatrists from six psychiatric hospitals in Shanghai. The results were compared to those of 548 urban community members (assessed in a previous study).ResultsCompared to urban community members, psychiatrists were more likely to believe that suicide can be prevented and that suicide is an important social problem but they had more stigmatizing beliefs about suicidal individuals and felt less empathy for them. The belief that suicide can be prevented was more common among female psychiatrists than male psychiatrists but male psychiatrists felt more empathy for suicidal individuals. Only 37% of the psychiatrists correctly agreed that talking about suicide-related issues with an individual would not precipitate suicidal behavior and only 41% correctly agreed that those who state that they intend to kill themselves may actually do so.ConclusionsMany psychiatrists in Shanghai harbor negative attitudes about suicidal individuals and are concerned that directly addressing the issue with patients will increase the risk of suicide. Demographic factors, educational status and work experience are associated with psychiatrists’ attitudes about suicide and, thus, need to be considered when training psychiatrists about suicide prevention.

show abstract

Awareness and Attitude Toward Suicide in Community Mental Health Professionals and Hospital Workers

Abstract: This study suggested that the factors to increase the awareness and attitude for suicide were the experience of increased education and case management of suicide. Therefore, education dealing with suicide and reinforcement of crisis management programs should be developed.

Cited by 15 publications

References 16 publications

Medical students′ attitude toward suicide attempters

Medical students′ attitude toward suicide attempters

Nursing students′ attitude toward suicide prevention

Cross-sectional study of attitudes about suicide among psychiatrists in Shanghai

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About