Written by front line professionals in the fields of nursing, mental health, prison services and the law, this text is an essential companion to the government's new suicide prevention strategy. The contributors offer a wealth of practical guidance on issues such as risk assessment and management in a range of settings, policy and the legal framework around suicide. Exploring the links between self-harm and suicide, the authors present international approaches to training in suicide prevention for professionals and preventative initiatives targeting wider communities. They debate the legality and morality of assisted self-harm and analyse the rate and causes of suicide among specific groups, including Black and minority ethnic groups, people in custody and people with mental illnesses. This manual provides health, social care and criminal justice professionals with all the most up-to-date information needed to make a positive contribution to suicide prevention in institutional and community settings.

The International Handbook of Suicide Prevention, 2nd Edition, presents a series of readings that consider the individual and societal factors that lead to suicide, it addresses ways these factors may be mitigated, and presents the most up-to-date evidence for effective suicide prevention approaches. An updated reference that shows why effective suicide prevention can only be achieved by understanding the many reasons why people choose to end their lives Gathers together contributions from more than 100 of the world’s leading authorities on suicidal behavior—many of them new to this edition Considers suicide from epidemiological, psychological, clinical, sociological, and neurobiological perspectives, providing a holistic understanding of the subject Describes the most up-to-date, evidence-based research and practice from across the globe, and explores its implications across countries, cultures, and the lifespan

This report is the first WHO publication of its kind and brings together what is known in a convenient form so that immediate actions can be taken. The report aims to increase the awareness of the public health significance of suicide and suicide attempts and to make suicide prevention a higher priority on the global public health agenda. It aims to encourage and support countries to develop or strengthen comprehensive suicide prevention strategies in a multisectoral public health approach. For a national suicide prevention strategy, it is essential that governments assume their role of leadership, as they can bring together a multitude of stakeholders who may not otherwise collaborate. Governments are also in a unique position to develop and strengthen surveillance and to provide and disseminate data that are necessary to inform action.

The carefully selected chapters in this volume provide food for thought to practitioners, researchers, students and all those who come into contact with the tragedy of suicide, with the hope of stimulating new ideas and interventions in the difficult fight against suicidal behaviours. This is the second book based on the Intuition, Imagination and Innovation – TRIPLE i in Suicidology international conferences, which are organised annually by the Slovene Center for Suicide Research in memory of the late Prof. Andrej Marušic with the aim of promoting intuition, imagination and innovation in the research and prevention of suicide and suicidal behaviour. In five parts, the internationally renowned team of authors summarises the research looking at: •Understanding individuals (assessing risk in older adults and psychotherapy with suicidal patients), •Understanding the groups at risk of suicide (including youth, people in prison, men, and people with mood disorders), •Understanding the role of community (including the Papageno effect, technology-based and collaborative approaches to prevention, as well as bereavement), •Models of understanding suicide (including the integrated motivational-volitional model of suicidal behaviour and the hot air balloon model of risk factors for suicide), and •Understanding the unique ethical and methodological issues associated with research in this field.

New edition of an acclaimed manual which uses the solution focused approach to take an empathetic and validating approach to working with individuals considering suicide. Offers invaluable guidance for suicide prevention by showing “what works” in treating those struggling with suicidal thoughts Provides straightforward ways to deal frankly with the subject of suicide, along with a range of tools and techniques that are helpful to clients Includes actual dialogue between practitioners and clients to allow readers to gain a better understanding of how to work with suicidal clients Compares and contrasts a ground-breaking approach to suicide prevention with more traditional approaches to risk assessment and management Features numerous updates and revisions along with brand new sections dealing with the international landscape, blaming the suicided person, Dr Alys Cole-King’s ‘Connecting with People’, and telephone work with the suicidal, Human Givens Therapy, and zero suicide

This volume is a guide for the hospital workforce related to suicide prevention. Written by experts in the field, this text is the only one that also includes the revised DSM-5 guidelines. It is also the first to cover both prevention in one concise guide, offering a well-rounded approach to long- and short-term prevention. The book begins by establishing the neurobiology of suicide before discussing the populations at risk for suicide and the various environments where they may present. The book addresses the epidemiology, including groups at heightened risk; etiology, including several types of risk factors; prevention, including large-scale community-based activities; and postvention, including the few evidence-based approaches that are currently available. Unlike any other text on the market, this book does not simply focus on one particular demographic; rather, the book covers a wide range of populations and concerns, including suicide in youths, racial minorities, patients suffering from serious mental and physical illnesses, psychopharmacological treatment in special populations, and a wide array of challenging scenarios that are often not addressed in the very few up-to-date resources available. Suicide Prevention is an outstanding resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, hospitalists, primary care doctors, nurses, social workers, and all medical professionals who may interface with suicidal patients.

Recent estimates by The World Health Organisation and The World Bank indicate that throughout the world each and every year more than 800,000 persons die as a consequence of suicide. This means that the death toll of suicide equals and in many countries even exceeds that of road traffic accidents. In addition to the number of suicidal deaths, at least ten times as many persons make non-fatal attempts to take their lives or harm themselves, often seriously enough to require medical attention and not infrequently resulting in irreversible disability. But still these figures inadequately describe the magnitude of human loss and suffering caused by suicide. If one assumes that for every suicidal death there are at least five persons whose lives are profoundly and often for many years affected by the event -emotionally, socially and economically-, by the event, then each year millions of survivor-victims are added to the tens of millions already 'out there'. Hence, suicide is an ever-recurring catastrophe of the first degree. It is not a phenomenon that first and foremost forms a dubious privilege of the so-called highly developed countries. Suicide also occurs in the developing countries and there is more than suggestive evidence that in several of these countries the suicide rate equals or even surpasses the highest national rates shown by offical statistics. It follows that suicide is an extremely important public health problem. It is, however, a problem that is painfully neglected. Throughout the world, resources devoted to the prevention of suicide are only a tiny fraction of those devoted to the prevention of comparable problems, such as road traffic accidents, or to problems of lesser magnitude, at least in the industrialized countries, such as HIV-infection and Aids. This volume, produced under the supervision and auspices of the World Health Organization, brings together for the first time information on epidemiological, clinical and preventive intervention aspects regarding suicide that have global significance and applicability. After a detailed description of the epidemiology of suicide and suicidal behaviour on an international scale, a large part of the book is devoted to the 'how-to's' of developing and organizing suicide prevention programs and services in different national and cultural settings, both at clinical and community level. In addition, a wealth of practical information for health care workers and volunteers is provided on how to evaluate and deal with acute suicide risk. Examples of successful preventive intervention programs and projects, from the developed as well as the developing world, are provided. Legal and ethical problems involved in suicide prevention are also discussed. Finally, both cultural and biological aspects of suicidal behaviour, as well as their clinical-practice relevance, are examined.

This booklet is an update of one in a series of resources on “Preventing suicide” addressed to specific social and professional groups that are particularly relevant to the prevention of suicide: “Preventing suicide: a resource for media professionals” (original in 2000 WHO/MNH/MBD/00.2, first update in 2008, second update in 2017). The booklet represents a link in a long and diverse chain involving a wide range of people and groups, including health professionals, educators, social communicators, policy makers, managers, workforce, families, and communities. Media professionals play an important role in the prevention of suicide (please also see “Preventing suicide: a global imperative”, 2014; LIVE LIFE: an implementation guide for suicide prevention in countries, 2021; and mhGAP evidence https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/treatment-care/mental-health-gap-action-programme/evidence-centre).

Suicide prevention initiatives are part of much broader systems connected to activities such as the diagnosis of mental illness, the recognition of clinical risk, improving access to care, and coordinating with a broad range of outside agencies and entities around both prevention and public health efforts. Yet suicide is also an intensely personal issue that continues to be surrounded by stigma. On September 11-12, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Washington, DC, to discuss preventing suicide among people with serious mental illness. The workshop was designed to illustrate and discuss what is known, what is currently being done, and what needs to be done to identify and reduce suicide risk. Improving Care to Prevent Suicide Among People with Serious Mental Illness summarizes presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Every 18 minutes, there is a suicide attempt somewhere in the United States, with some 30,000 of those resulting in completed suicide each year. Worldwide, there are more than 1 million suicides annually. We know the basic facts: Most of the people were depressed or suffered another mental illness, and many were facing stressful life events with which they could not cope. But is there no way to prevent the tragedy? Author Kristine Bertini, a clinical psychologist, says one of the most effective means may be to understand first how suicidal tendencies and thinking develop, how environment, biology, culture, and societal factors all play a role in predisposing some people to give up hope and see death as the only way to end their suffering. In this book, Bertini explains the development of suicidal thinking and, through patient vignettes, illustrates the ways this thinking develops. She also describes and illustrates signals friends and loved ones as well as professionals can watch for pointing to such thinking, which may be kept secretive by the person at risk, as well as approaches that can be used to alter tendencies and thinking for the person at risk.