Ethnic Minority Groups’ Experiences of Suicide Bereavement: A Qualitative Exploratory Study

Abstract

It is estimated that between 36,000 and 360,000 people are affected by suicide every year in the UK, and a proportion may develop depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or engage in high-risk behaviours. Recent systematic analyses have revealed a clear gap in research on suicide bereavement in minority ethnic groups. This study aimed to understand the experiences and support needs of individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds bereaved by suicide and was the first in the UK to investigate this matter. The study was a secondary analysis of data. Participants were 7158 people residing in the UK who completed an online survey about their experiences of suicide. Free-text qualitative responses of 227 participants who did not identify as White British were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: maladaptive coping strategies, emotional processes following suicide, lack of support from agencies, and the importance of mental health awareness. Ethnic minority groups reported a lack of support despite attempts to engage with services, noted the prevalence of stigma within ethnic minority groups, and expressed a need to tackle this. These preliminary results suggest that ethnic minority individuals require visible and accessible services that can successfully engage with and support them.

Use of Health Services and Support Resources by Immediate Family Members Bereaved by Suicide: A Scoping Review

“…Figure 2 shows the key characteristics of the included studies. Of the 63 original articles included in the review, 24 studies were classified by method as quantitative [ 21 , 22 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ], 29 as qualitative [ 14 , 15 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 ,…”

“…The median sample size was 18 (min 4, max 250) for the qualitative studies, and most had 40 or less participants. One study using qualitative survey data had nearly 230 participants [ 79 ], and the other two studies with large sample sizes were qualitative analyses of observational data on the use of the internet [ 73 , 81 ]. The median sample size was 139 (min 8, max 11,572) for quantitative studies and 37 (min 5, max 270) for studies with a mixed design.…”

“…Forty percent of the studies were published in 2019 or later [ 14 , 21 , 22 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 51 , 55 , 56 , 58 , 60 , 64 , 65 , 67 , 70 , 79 , 80 , 82 , 83 , 87 , 89 , 92 , 94 , 98 ] and more than half of the studies were from Australia ( n = 12) [ 14 , 22 , 41 , 47 , 59 , 61 , 67 , 72 , 74 , 76 , 80 , 95 ], the US ( n = 12) [ 46 , 50 , 51 , 54 , 57 , 63 , 71 , 73 , 75 , 86 , 90 , 98 ] and the UK ( n = 10) [ 52 , 53 , 64 , 65 , 68 ...…”

“…The largest service category, comprising 20 studies, included studies that did not focus on a specific service or support type but had a general focus. These were typically studies with a qualitative [ 14 , 15 , 67 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 88 , 90 ] or mixed [ 94 , 96 , 97 ] approach, and only five were quantitative studies [ 21 , 22 , 43 , 53 , 61 ]. Help-seeking and service use, needs and unmet needs, and experiences and benefits were common themes in the studies with a general focus, and few focused on effects.…”

Tragedies, Fates, Furies and Fuels: Narratives of Individuals Bereaved by Suicide

“…A lack of diversity in participants suggests that further research could focus on a more diverse group of the bereaved. Some work has begun to focus on the experience of bereavement by suicide in ethnic minority groups as in Rivart et al’s [ 26 ] article in this special issue. Our findings were also limited by the gendered lens that the women participants and women researchers overlaid on stories of men’s suicide that may help sustain damaging masculinity tropes [ 13 ].…”