‘Suicide stigma’ renegotiated: Storytelling, social support and resistance in an Internet-based community for the young suicide-bereaved

Abstract

From a social constructionist and narrative perspective on grief, which emphasizes the connection between situated storytelling, meaning-making and self-formation, this article explores the power of collective storytelling in an Internet-based community of the suicide-bereaved. This is a context where young mourners who have lost a parent to suicide, among others, turn for social support, which is another main focus of the article. Using Scott and Lyman's taxonomy of 'accounting practices' to explain 'unanticipated' or 'untoward behavior', the approaches to meaning-making of suicide applied in this context for support exchange are analyzed, in the accounts of the parentally bereaved participants and in a co-produced bereavement story. The results showcase how the narrative framing for the interpretation and organization of the suicide experience provided by the website editors as a resistance to the 'suicide stigma', together with the power of the experience accumulated by many, can potentially work to destigmatize and empower the parentally bereaved participants' grief. In addition, this public storytelling is acting to spread 'lived knowledge' and thereby to counteract suicide stigma in society. Ultimately, the results constitute a call for a return to a narrative orientation in social work practice. By adopting a teller-focused approach as part of assessment and treatment, social workers could inspire the often traumatized and stigmatized individuals they encounter to become narrators of their own life-and self-narratives, and to assist in the construction of a more tolerable meaning and identity from their experiences.Qualitative Social Work 0(00) 1-18

“Why did he choose to die?”: A meaning-searching approach to parental suicide bereavement in youth

“…In such a face-toface or Internet community, common themes of experience could be shared and discussed in line with the above approach. This would be likely to have multiple positive effects in terms of normalization and learning from each other's experiences (Groos & Shakespeare-Finch, 2013;Mitchell et al, 2007;Silv en Hagstr€ om, 2016b). In line with the web community analyzed above, a collective de-stigmatizing narrative constructed through shared storytelling and the accumulated experiences of the many could have a particularly positive impact on these young mourners' meaning-making of suicide and their self-formation.…”

Research-Based Theater and “Stigmatized Trauma”: The Case of Suicide Bereavement

“…Many other initiatives and strategies are also needed to combat suicide stigma as part of a health-promotion approach to suicide bereavement. For example, there are several examples of how other narrative methods can support people individually or in groups to reconstruct meanings and identities in relation to a suicide loss in the family (see for example Sands, 2009;Stepakoff, 2009;Thompson and Neimeyer, 2014;Sather, 2015;Silvén Hagström, 2017). All such efforts to assist in the construction of destigmatized meanings and moral identities in the wake of suicide have the potential to help the suicide-bereaved to experience post-traumatic growth, and thus improved health and wellbeing (Neimeyer, 2004).…”

El construccionismo social en la conducta suicida: conversaciones narrativas con estudiantes universitarios

“…No obstante, a pesar del incremento en la investigación y el surgimiento de programas de prevención del comportamiento suicida, las cifras de intentos y suicidios consumados en el país y alrededor del mundo siguen creciendo a través de los años (OMS, 2018;Moreno-Lozada et al, 2019). Asimismo, aunque la conducta suicida es una problemática compleja, contingente, dinámica y multicausal, tanto la investigación interdisciplinar como los programas de intervención y políticas públicas se han centrado, en su mayoría, en un modelo biomédico que comprende la conducta suicida en términos de los factores de riesgo individuales y, en este sentido, su abordaje se ha enfocado en la identificación y evaluación de psicopatologías (Drake, 2013;Frey y Cerel, 2015;Núñez et al, 2018;Silvén-Hagström, 2017).…”

“…Algunos autores (Campo-Arias y Herazo, 2015;Eguiluz-Romo, 2011;Michel et al, 2017;Reeves, 2017;Silvén-Hagström, 2017;White y Stoneman, 2012) convergen en que el potencial del modelo biomédico en el diseño de programas de prevención de la conducta suicida es limitado y sus resultados no han sido concluyentes, además, el abordaje centrado en la identificación y evaluación de psicopatologías supone una serie de consecuencias que impiden el bienestar personal, al generar procesos de estigmatización y discriminación que limitan las posibilidades de cambio de las personas y dificultan la relación entre pacientes y profesionales disminuyendo la eficacia de la intervención.…”

“…Frente a esta situación, es cada vez más frecuente la implementación de modelos sistémicos y socioconstruccionistas que, desde perspectivas narrativas, colaborativas y generativas, abordan el suicidio considerando la complejidad del sujeto en su contexto relacional, cultural e histórico, así como su capacidad de co-construir significados y formas de relación que le brinden bienestar y valor a su vida (Crestuzzo, 2018;Drake, 2013;Eguiluz-Romo, 2011;Frey y Cerel, 2015;Littlewood et al, 2016;Michel et al, 2017;Muylaert et al, 2014;Núñez et al, 2018;O'Neill, 2004;Reeves, 2017;Silvén-Hagström, 2017;Singer et al, 2017;White y Kral, 2014;White y Stoneman, 2012).…”