Suicidal Persons Research Articles

Social perceptions of suicide among the university student in Gaza Strip (A field and descriptive study)

This descriptive, analytical study aimed to identify the social perceptions of suicide for a university student in the Gaza Strip, the sample size 101 students was chosen purposively, a social perception questionnaire for suicide was used for the university student (Zuhair, 2008). The main results of this study were as follows: 67% believe that suicide is a response resulting from a personal problem, 93% of the sample agree that suicide is the choice of death intentionally, 90% of the sample agree that the suicide sees suicide as a means of freedom from his suffering, 60% Of the sample, they agreed that suicide, according to the suicide, is an assertion of its own in its own way, 66% agree that severe anxiety often leads to suicide, 79% agree that suicide is a rebellion against social norms, 88% agree that youth are the most vulnerable group to suicide, 61.5% of the sample collectively That suicide affects males more than females, 63% have indicated that the failure of the emotional relationship causes young people to commit suicide, 91% of them agree that suicide hinders the movement for the growth of societies. On the other hand, 43.5% say that the media in Gaza avoids talking about the problem of suicide, 78% agree that the issue of suicide in Gaza is one of the issues that shame families, 82% considered that suicide is a criminal act against society as a whole, 90% agreed that the suicidal person touches his religion and his family. The study agreed 100% that one can fight the idea of suicide by adhering to the principles of the Islamic religion, and the study concluded that there is a difference in the social perception of suicide for a university student. The study recommended the necessity of working towards achieving a comprehensive suicide prevention response targeting all groups of Palestinian society, especially the youth.

Quality of online news reporting of suicidal behavior in Myanmar: Adherence to the World Health Organization reporting guidelines

Background:Media reporting of suicide has an essential role in the suicidal behavior of the general population.Aims:The aim of this study is to assess the quality of online news reports of suicidal behavior in Myanmar against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines.Methods:We performed a content analysis of all available suicide-related news reports published in vernacular online newspapers of Myanmar.Results:A total of 285 reports were analyzed, consisting of 87.4% suicides and 12.6% nonfatal suicidal attempts. Potentially, harmful information reported in the text includes the methods of suicide (100%), the word or term in Burmese related to suicide (89.5%), the name of the person (56.5%), life event (50.5%), and photo or suicidal person (17.9%). Meanwhile, helpful information such as prevention programs and the contact information for suicide services to the readers have been infrequently reported.Conclusion:The study found that the newspaper reporting of suicide in Myanmar is grossly nonadherent to the WHO media guidelines.

Understanding the phenomenon of suicide

Background and objective: Suicidality and suicidal behavior have long been studied extensively, as they are considered the main cause of premature death throughout the world. Death by suicide seems to have always been part of human behavior. The earliest known report of a suicide was written 4000 years ago on papyrus. Still, despite the rich literature on the topic, prevention or prediction of suicide are still hard and sometimes impossible. To date, there is still no theoretical model that encompasses all possibilities of the phenomenon. Material and methods: This study aim was to present studies of Professor Israel Orbach who was one of the pioneers in the research of suicide and a leading theoretician in the field of suicide. Results: Studies point to numerous variables involved in suicidal behavior and in the suicidal act that the interaction between those variables promotes a destructive process that leads the individual to act in a self-harming manner. The research of mental pain and the inability to moderate it are the main contributions to the field of suicide, alongside with dissociation process which by its presence, increases the probability of suicidal behavior. Conclusion: Numerous theories and models attempt to describe the process leading to the act of suicide, but the unknown is still larger. The fact that in most cultures suicide and suicidal behavior are still considered taboo, something to hide and be ashamed of, is a tragedy for the suicidal individual as well as his or her family, and other close people, as it impedes identification, treatment and prevention. It may be even more of a tragedy and harder to comprehend and accept, when the suicidal person is an otherwise healthy adolescent who has his whole life ahead of him or her. Therefore, any bit of new information and knowledge added to the field of suicidality is another layer in the understanding of the process, mechanism and dynamics of this subject and contributes to the improvement of prevention, treatment, and to assistance to those in distress and maybe help in stopping suicide from becoming a pandemic.

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN AN ADOLESCENT WITH ASPERGER SYNDROME

Background The results of the previous research imply that persons with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at an increased suicide risk. Suicidality is more probable when PTSD occurs in comorbidity with other psychological disorders. The studying of potential differences and the fundamental social and physiological characteristics of suicidal and non-suicidal persons with PTSD has so far failed to produce consistent results. The objective of this article is to examine whether suicidal and non-suicidal persons with PTSD differ by demographic characteristics, the presence and the type of comorbidity with other psychological disorders and the type of traumatic experience. Subjects and methods The study included 147 participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 91 men and 56 women, who have been diagnosed with PTSD under the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Based on the suicidality status (suicidal/non-suicidal), the sample was divided into two sub-samples. For the purpose of data collection, a clinical interview and a socio-demographic questionnaire was applied during psychological clinical assessment at a psychiatric ward. Results It has been established that suicidal and non-suicidal persons with PTSD differ by demographic characteristics, such as the educational and employment status, the presence of a history of suicide in the family, the presence and type of comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders, and the type of traumatic experience. In terms of age, gender, marital status and psychiatric heredity, no significant differences have been found relative to the suicidality status. Conclusions Suicidal persons with PTSD more frequently have low education, they are unemployed and have a history of suicide in the family, and they are diagnosed with comorbid psychiatric disorders, dominated by mood disorders and personality disorders, with multiple comorbid disorders combined, and with war, civilian and mixed trauma being equally present in these persons. Based on the established demographic and clinical characteristics of suicidal patients with PTSD, it is possible to improve the psychological and psychiatric assessment of suicidality in persons with PTSD, which enables adequate and timely identification of the suicide risk in this population.

Talking about suicide: An uncontrolled trial of the effects of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health first aid program on knowledge, attitudes and intended and actual assisting actions.

Suicide is a leading cause of death among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Friends, family and frontline workers (for example, teachers, youth workers) are often best positioned to provide initial assistance if someone is at risk of suicide. We developed culturally appropriate expert consensus guidelines on how to provide mental health first aid to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviour and used this as the basis for a 5-hour suicide gatekeeper training course called Talking About Suicide. This paper describes the outcomes for participants in an uncontrolled trial of this training course. We undertook an uncontrolled trial of the Talking About Suicide course, delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid instructors to 192 adult (i.e. 18 years of age or older) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (n = 110) and non-Indigenous (n = 82) participants. Questionnaires capturing self-report outcomes were self-administered immediately before (n = 192) and after attending the training course (n = 188), and at four-months follow-up (n = 98). Outcome measures were beliefs about suicide, stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist, and intended and actual actions to assist a suicidal person. Despite a high level of suicide literacy among participants at pre-course measurement, improvements at post-course were observed in beliefs about suicide, stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist and intended assisting actions. While attrition at follow-up decreased statistical power, some improvements in beliefs about suicide, stigmatising attitudes and intended assisting actions remained statistically significant at follow-up. Importantly, actual assisting actions taken showed dramatic improvements between pre-course and follow-up. Participants reported feeling more confident to assist a suicidal person after the course and this was maintained at follow-up. The course was judged to be culturally appropriate by those participants who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders. The results of this uncontrolled trial were encouraging, suggesting that the Talking About Suicide course was able to improve participants' knowledge, attitudes, and intended assisting actions as well as actual actions taken.

Change in attitude towards suicide with current undergraduate training in psychiatry: a cross-sectional study

Background: Teachers in the field of psychiatry has the responsibility to impart changes in students' attitude towards important areas of the subject. Suicide is the psychiatric emergency that a primary care practitioner is most likely to encounter in day to day practice. In this cross-sectional study, we looked into the change in the attitude of an undergraduate student towards suicide with his/her training in psychiatry with the present undergraduate curriculum. Materials and Methods: We recruited undergraduate medical students doing their MBBS course from a medical college of South India. Their responses to Eskin's Attitudes towards Suicide Scale (E-ATSS) and Eskin's Social Reactions to Suicidal Persons Scale (E-SRSPS) were collected. The students were divided into groups of students completed undergraduate training in Psychiatry and those who are yet to get exposed to it. Responses in E-ATSS and E-SRSPS from both groups were compared. Results: The overall attitude of students towards suicide and suicidal person were favourable compared to many previous studies. There was a significant difference in the factor ' suicide as a sign of mental illness' when responses from both groups were compared. 2.72±1.11 in the exposed group compared to 3.16±1.11 of unexposed group. p-value<0.001). Also, there was a significant difference in responses to the disapproval of suicidal disclosure. 2.83±0.65 in the exposed group and 2.67±0.67 in the unexposed group. (p-value - 0.01). Conclusion: The current undergraduate medical curriculum by Medical Council of India is successful in bringing attitude change in some important domains of the subject of suicide. Domains remain under-covered by the curriculum should be looked into in the future curriculum revisions.

Detection of Mentally Distressed Social Media Profiles Using Machine Learning Techniques

In recent days, due to multiple reasons like the nuclear family, peer pressure for fake prestige, impatience attitude, and mental stress has become a common trait in every person. With advancements in technology like the internet and online presence, it has become a routine to be active online. Some sections of people vent out their emotions online as they have no support system in real life. It has been detected, as seen in some instances; those suicidal tendencies ranging from mild to extreme could be from a person’s online profile activity. However, it is a complex combination of multiple factors that must be comprehensively calculated lest it predicts a wrong result for an innocent person marking him as suicidal. In our current work, we use a specific method that includes all critical criteria that could be exhibited by a suicidal person by using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. These textual features are passed through a robust Machine Learning framework for detecting an abrupt change in input data. Our method predicts efficiently a genuine, mentally disturbed profile from a typical profile.

Inter-Sectoral Management of Suicidal Persons in Ghana: Tensions and Prospects.

Inter-sectoral collaboration health care model is essential for effective suicide prevention and treatment. This brief report presents three cases to illustrate two important facts in suicidology and related observed dynamics working as suicide researchers in Ghana. The first fact is that suicidal work is a multidisciplinary approach. The second: there may be contextual factors which may make a multidisciplinary approach in working with a suicidal person difficult in Ghana. The first two cases involved the work of a Clinical Psychologist/Suicidologist (First author), while the third involved the work of a Community Psychologist/Suicidologist (Second Author). Thematic analysis of experiences showed the trajectories of tensions and prospects involved when working as a team in providing help for persons in suicidal crisis in Ghana. Based on the findings, we make recommendations for scaling up mental health education and suicide training for allied professionals towards enriching and expanding inter-sectoral collaboration in preventing and treating suicidality.

Clinical features related to rapid cycling and one-year euthymia in bipolar disorder patients: A multicenter treatment survey for bipolar disorder in psychiatric clinics (MUSUBI)

ObjectiveRapid cycling (RC) presents a risk of greater severity in bipolar disorder (BD), whereas patients with one-year euthymia (OYE) have better prognosis. The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical background and prescription characteristics of patients in the two opposing states of current RC and OYE from a large sample (N = 2609) in a multicenter treatment survey on BD in psychiatric clinics (MUSUBI). MethodsMUSIBI was a cross-sectional study wherein questionnaires, based on a retrospective medical record survey of consecutive cases of BD, were distributed to 176 outpatient clinics. The questionnaire collected information on patient background, current episode, and clinical and prescription characteristics. OYE was defined as the presence of a euthymic state for at least 12 months. ResultsIn this study, current RC (9.7% frequency) was significantly higher in females, had a younger age of onset, functional impairments, and a higher rate of neurodevelopmental disorder and physical comorbidity compared to non-RC patients. OYE (19.4% frequency) was associated with a lower proportion of females, older age, higher occupational status, and lower rate of suicide ideation, psychotic symptoms, personality disorder, and alcohol or substance abuse. Mood stabilizers were prescribed in ≥80% of cases, while antipsychotics were prescribed in half of the cases (more in RC and less in OYE). Antidepressant prescription rates were lower in OYE than in RC. ConclusionsRC and OYE generally show opposing characteristics, but the details of the opposite parameters are distinctive. Clinicians can help predict the progression of BD by understanding the clinical background and characteristics of these opposing clinical features.

Suffering in science: Care and recovery in evidence-based psychiatric treatments

Summary Escalating numbers of depressed, anxious, and suicidal persons in the United States have led to increased demands for clinical practice guidelines. These guidelines are designed by and for medical professionals to locate and promote the best evidence-based treatments. Clinicians suggest that a widespread application of substantiated treatments will curtail trends of increased despair, but there are a wider range of ethical and socio-political limitations that are not always immediately addressed in these assessments. Issues regarding social stigma, control and normalization, diverse life stressors, and disproportionate access to resources are often diluted in depictions of treatment efficacy. Consistent interpretations of the concepts illness, disorder, health, recovery, and need are also lacking. In this paper, I unravel the limitations of several leading evidence-based treatments and propose principles of care as preconditional commitments for future practice. This analysis specifically assesses treatment options for depression and anxiety. In response, I argue that clinical practice guidelines require a deeper engagement with the theoretical foundations of prominent therapeutic models and must consider the effects of those premises beyond controlled treatment sessions. I recommend more substantial collaborations with mental health sociology and bioethics, with a particular emphasis on care ethics.

The Stigma of Suicide Scale: Psychometric Validation of the German Short Version (SOSS-SF-D)

The Australian Stigma of Suicide Scale (SOSS-SF) was translated and tested for applicability and psychometric properties in Germany. Further, it was investigated whether the observed factors from the Australian original could be replicated in a German sample. Based on a nation-wide, representative telephone survey (N = 2,002), the 16 items of the SOSS-SF-D were examined with a principal component analysis (varimax rotation). Mean values, standard deviations and medians as well as the z-standardized values for skewness and kurtosis were determined. The principal component analysis revealed 3 subscales (stigma, normalization/glorification, depression/isolation), just as in the Australian sample. Internal consistency of the subscales was acceptable (Cronbachs α: 0.64-0.78). The SOSS-SF-D is a valid and short instrument for measuring the multidimensionality of attitudes towards suicidal persons.

Engaging Television for Public Education and Counselling on Suicide: a Case Example from Ghana

This article presents a case example of media engagement for public education and counselling on suicide in Ghana. Data were drawn from 11 telephone interviews that assessed the impact a TV program had on persons experiencing suicidal crisis. Qualitative content analysis showed that the program helped to reduce the crisis by offering an empathic identification with suicidal persons. Hope induction and opportunity for seeing options, as well as provision of direct help or links to available help resources also emerged. Given the deep-seated stigma of suicide in Ghana, the media can serve a critical role in anti-stigma suicide campaigns and public education towards effective suicide prevention in Ghana.

How Burnout Gave Me Back My Professional Fire

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article First PersonFull AccessHow Burnout Gave Me Back My Professional FireH. Steven Moffic, M.D.H. Steven MofficSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:10 Apr 2020https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.4b38AbstractRecently, a member of the clergy asked me about someone who reported being suicidal and what else could she do to help avert a suicide. After a couple of calls and feeling helped, she exclaimed in wonder: “How do you do it? How do you cope with this day by day?” I answered that we learn to do so by trying to find the “sweet spot” for handling stress.Most psychiatrists have a stressful career. That is part and parcel of needing to be empathic and compassionate with every patient.I may or may not have experienced more stress than usual. I always worked at least part time in community psychiatry, where resources were always inadequate. I once had a boss who was convicted of being part of a scheme to buy and sell our clinical buildings, destroying our system almost immediately and necessitating a career and geographical move for me and my family. I tried leading a not-for-profit academic managed care system to be a participant/observer but was publicly called “evil” by a professional leader who later apologized. I saw many patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, especially refugees and prisoners.Actually, I thought that all of this stress could not only be handled but also resulted in more resilience and a sense of accomplishment. I loved being a psychiatrist.I thought I would work to old age, but something seemed to change after the start of the new millennia, when for-profit managed care escalated. For instance, at my institution, medication visits were reduced from 30 to 20 minutes, then to 15, and finally to 10, and half of that was for electronic health record documentation. Administrators did not engage us in these decisions. I felt blocked and easily replaceable by a younger, cheaper psychiatrist. After reviewing my financial status when I turned 66, I quit.Almost overnight I felt so much better and lighter emotionally. I wondered why. Talking about this to a retired emergency physician, Randall Levin, M.D., he said that I had been burned out. I was? This was in 2012, and I had never even heard of that term, yet it was a psychological one. He said that he had been burned out too and that his specialty was working on this unique variation of stress.I wondered, Was psychiatry also touched by burnout? I had a new calling to find out why and to help our specialty use our expertise for other physicians and ourselves, as burning out gradually increased to an overall epidemic rate of 50%. The main cause? It’s a derivative of the 1992 Clinton presidential PR campaign: “It’s the economy stupid!” Now, it’s the system, stupid!Our APA became more involved with this challenge under President Anita Everett, M.D. As part of a component she created—the Work Group on Physician Wellness and Burnout—I became a “poster child” of sorts for psychiatrist burnout with a brief personal video on our website. Perhaps, most importantly, I became a co-editor of the new book published by our APA Publishing, Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists.I wish I could have seen that suicidal person, but I could still help. I am known as our local “community psychiatrist,” serving pro bono on boards, discussing movies, and addressing Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and climate change.Our ethical principles put the needs of colleagues and ourselves as secondary to that of patients. Maybe that should be turned around. Research suggests that if we are burning out—feeling emotionally exhausted, cynical, and/or less effective—patient outcomes suffer.Even the current challenge of the coronavirus epidemic in mental health systems will not cause burnout despite increased workload and personal risk, but it will if physicians are blocked from doing what we can to heal under the circumstances.My professional passion and fire have been reignited. I still love being a psychiatrist. ■Editor’s note: With this article, Psychiatric News is launching a new column in which APA members are invited to share personal stories that taught them important lessons, gave them meaningful insights, changed their lives—in short, touched them in some way from which others might learn. Stories can be related to personal or professional experiences. If you are interested in sharing such a story, please contact Cathy Brown.H. Steven Moffic, M.D., is a retired tenured professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He is the co-editor of Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists from APA Publishing. ISSUES NewArchived

Research Status and the Prospect of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Behavior

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), also referred to as self-injurious behavior (SIB), are different terms to describe behaviors where the demonstrable injury is self-inflicted. The behavior involves deliberate tissue damage that is usually performed without suicidal intent. The term self-mutilation is also sometimes used, although this phrase evokes connotations that some find worrisome, inaccurate, or offensive. The diagnostic study of this behavior is controversial, and it needs to be further discussed with the definition criteria of suicide and borderline personality disorder. The pathologic mechanism of nssi behavior is proposed by several theoretical models, including the functional model, developmental pathologic model, and integrative model. In the future research, the research on the psychological evaluation intervention of nssi behavior should be widened, the factors affecting nssi can be further classified, and the cross-cultural research on nssi behavior and the applicability of existing foreign research achievements in China will also become the focus of future research.

A Qualitative Assessment of an Innovative Suicide Prevention and Treatment Approach: Contextual-Conceptual Therapy

Mental health and mental illness is a critical to a person’s overall health. In the United States alone, mental illness effects one in six adults. Furthermore, 40% of those individuals who die of suicide have been diagnosed with a mental health condition or illness. Yet, there is a paucity of research on innovative methods that help prevent suicide. The Contextual-Conceptual Therapy (CCT) approach introduces an innovative way to treat suicide by working to uncover the strengths of the suicidal person and addressing a person’s true self. The CCT approach was developed over the course of 25 years working with more than 16,000 suicidal patients in Seattle, Washington, and is tailored specifically for primary and secondary prevention of suicide. While there has been anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of the CCT program, the program has yet to be formally evaluated. This qualitative research study aims to understand the impact the CCT approach has had on its clients. Eleven former CCT clients were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Outcomes described by participants included an increase in curiosity and self-efficacy as a means through which to decrease suicide ideation and behavior, and proved to be incredibly powerful in changing long-term outcomes. This qualitative study is a first-step in providing critical insight on suicide prevention for wider dissemination. At a time when adverse mental health and illness is impacting the lives of millions of people, the CCT approach has the potential to address suicide, mental illness and mental health across diverse populations.

Legal Liability for Returning Firearms to Suicidal Persons Who Voluntarily Surrender Them in 50 US States.

Temporary transfers of firearms from suicidal persons is a strategy to reduce the incidence of suicide deaths. We discuss a barrier to the effective operation of voluntary temporary firearm transfer laws: the dearth of guidance on the liability for returning firearms to persons who voluntarily surrender them. We examine the laws of all 50 US states that regulate temporary surrenders of firearms and evaluate whether any provisions govern liability for returning temporarily surrendered firearms.Although 14 states create background check exceptions to permit temporary transfers of firearms from an owner to family, friends, retailers, or law enforcement, no states prescribe procedures for returning those firearms.ability for returning the firearms to people who voluntarily surrendered them.We recommend amending state laws to clarify the process and liability for returning temporarily surrendered firearms to the original owner. Such amendments would be intended to mitigate the potential chilling effect that lack of clarity and presumption of liability may impose on efficiently reducing firearm access to protect firearm owners at risk for suicide.

Suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in a clinical sample of Mexican naval military

Introduction. Suicide represents the sixteenth cause of death worldwide. Until a few years ago the suicide rate in the US military has been below that of the civilian population, but in 2008 the suicide rate among US soldiers began to outpace the civilian population. To our knowledge, there are no studies that describe suicidal behavior among Mexican military personnel. Objective. To know the frequency of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in the last 12 months in Mexican naval military and determine the variables associated with both ideation and suicide attempt. Method. This cross-sectional study included 246 outpatients who were sent for psychiatric assessment from their operating units. A psychiatric interview was conducted using the diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Diseases in its tenth edition, which included the presentation of suicidal ideation and attempted suicide in the last 12 months. Results. Suicidal ideation in the last 12 months occurred in 60 cases (24.39%). Twenty-four cases (9.76%) presented a suicide attempt in the last 12 months. Variables associated with suicidal ideation were military grade (seaman and classes, p = .03), suicide family history (p &lt; .01), depressive disorders (p &lt; .01), and personality disorders (p &lt; .01). Regarding the presentation of attempted suicide, the mean age in the cases was lower (p &lt; .01). There was also a higher frequency of attempted suicide in singles or without a couple (p &lt; .01), in personnel with four years or less in service (p &lt; .01), and in patients with a personality disorder (p &lt; .01). Discussion and conclusion. Greater emphasis in the detection of mental health problems, including suicidality among the military population and more representative studies at the national level are needed.

Public Stigma Toward Persons with Suicidal Thoughts—Do Age, Sex, and Medical Condition of Affected Persons Matter?

Suicidal persons often face public stigmatization which affects help-seeking behavior and may lead to an additional suicide risk. There is not much known about differences in stigmatizing attitudes concerning characteristics of affected persons. The present study investigates public stigma toward suicidal persons in Germany by focussing on differences concerning sex, age, and medical condition of the affected person. A national telephone survey (N=2,002) was conducted using case vignettes presenting a person with suicidal thoughts. Vignettes systematically varied in sex, age, and medical condition (depressive symptoms vs. cancer). Several components of stigma were assessed ("weakness of will" as a cause, separation, negative emotional reactions, and desire for social distance). About 44% of the respondents agreed that a cause of suicidal thoughts is "weakness of will," and two thirds disagreed that they would feel and think the same as the described person. In terms of emotional reactions, fear was more pronounced than anger. Stigmatizing attitudes were particularly pronounced when the described person was female and depressive symptoms were presented. Magnitude of public suicide stigma varies depending on the characteristics of the described person. Groups that are at special risk of being stigmatized should be considered in antistigma programs.

Healers Need Healing Too: Results from the Good Road of Life Training.

Mental health professionals that work with American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations are often viewed as ineffective because their professional training is based on a Western model of service delivery that is an extension of Western colonization. Research on effective training approaches for AI/AN mental health providers or mental health professionals that work with AI/AN populations is limited. The purpose of this study is to document the experiences and impact of the Good Road of Life (GRL) training on mental health professionals that work with AI/AN populations. A cross sectional mixed-methods design was used to answer the primary research question, "What is the impact of GRL training on mental health professionals who work in American Indian communities?" We used GRL ratings, self-reported impacts, knowledge gains, and pre-post Sources of Strength scores. Self-reported mean knowledge scores increased for all topics. Daily evaluations indicate that most participants felt more positive, knew more about the impacts of sobriety, and knew how to help a suicidal person. Sources of Strength mean scores increased in the following areas: confidence, belonging, historical trauma, using strengths to overcome difficulties, spiritual practices, resolved unhealthy relationships, and use of cultural resilience. Results indicate that GRL is an effective short-term training for professionals working in the mental health field throughout Indian Country.

Суицид в фокусе криминологической науки

This survey article deals with the approaches to the complex psychosocial phenomenon of suicide in criminology, looks into the existing problems and obstacles in the field of suicide prevention and also reviews the progress which this interdisciplinary science has made in it so far. The author shows how suicide was studied throughout the history of criminology, points out to the generality of causes of both suicidal and criminal behavior, identifies major psychosocial factors of suicide, proposes his own definition of suicide. The psychological-criminological description of suicide types is given for the domains where this phenomenon is most frequent along with preventive measures for each domain. The psychosocial characteristic is presented for suicidal personality and also similar traits are found between suicidal and criminal personality. The author describes the psychological stigmatization syndrome of a potential suicide's personality, analyzes the scientific concepts explaining the causes of suicide, concludes that there is a need to establish an effective system of suicide prevention and also singles out the new methods aimed at improving the practices for prevention of suicidal behavior.