Lived Lives at Fort Dunree: a rural community perspective

Eimear Cleary,Anne Sheridan,Seamus Mcguiness,Cecily C Kelleher,Kevin M Malone,Collete Corry,Abbie Lane

doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15613.1

Abstract

Background: Elevated suicide rates have alarmed policy makers and communities. In these circumstances, the value of understanding more about communities and their potential role in suicide intervention is becoming more apparent. This study involved evaluating feedback from individuals with and without previous suicidal thinking who participated in an arts-science rural community-based intervention project around suicide (Lived Lives at Fort Dunree). Methods: A combined quantitative and qualitative questionnaire was used to evaluate individual and community responses to the Lived Lives project. Results: Participants (n = 83), with and without a mental health history and previous suicidal ideation, reported they believed Lived Lives could have potential to help suicide-bereaved families, people with mental illness and people with suicidal thinking. Qualitative results suggested its’ suitability for specific groups affected by suicide. Discussion: The evaluation of the Lived Lives project indicated that supervised, “safe-space” community intervention projects around suicide have inherent value with positive impacts for bereaved individuals and communities, including those who have experienced suicidal feelings. Future research should explore the transferability of these findings to other communities, and at-risk groups.

Highlights

Interdisciplinary approaches are uncommon in relation to suicide research, and arts-science approaches are rare
The first three questions were directly related to the participants’ thoughts on Lived Lives while the latter three questions were related to their own personal experience of suicide bereavement and mental health history
Five and six which asked participants about their own personal mental health history and whether they had been bereaved by suicide, answers were more evenly distributed between “yes” and “no” with a very small proportion of “I don’t know” answers

Summary

Introduction

Interdisciplinary approaches are uncommon in relation to suicide research, and arts-science approaches are rare. The original research project began in 2006 and combined a psycho-biographical autopsy study (a modified psychological autopsy involving both quantitative and qualitative methods) (Malone, 2013) together with novel “Visual Arts Autopsy” (VAA) methods (McGuinness, 2010). This involved the research team travelling around Ireland and interviewing 104 suicide-bereaved families, mostly in their homes, about their lost loved one. This study involved evaluating feedback from individuals with and without previous suicidal thinking who participated in an arts-science rural communitybased intervention project around suicide (Lived Lives at Fort Dunree). Future research should explore the transferability of these findings to other communities, and at-risk groups

Objectives

Methods

Results