Public involvement in suicide prevention: understanding and strengthening lay responses to distress

防自杀是大家的事吗？S的事。之前的研究主要集中在医生和卫生专业人员可以做出的贡献上，因为那些自杀的人通常患有可治疗的精神障碍。人们的注意力也集中在政府让自杀方式变得更难获得的举措上，例如通过减少扑热息痛和其他常用药物的包装尺寸。这些措施是有帮助的，但我们也需要关注普通人可以做出的贡献。亲戚、朋友和同事通常是当一个人陷入深深的烦恼或痛苦时第一个知道的。他们可能认为这是正常的？在这种情况下很正常？(例如，在关系破裂后)，并假设这个人会及时克服它。我们中的大多数人最终都会从挫折中恢复过来，但有些人不会。亲属和朋友需要对痛苦的严重性、如何应对以及是否寻求专业帮助做出判断。这些都是困难和复杂的决定，我们对人们如何做出决定以及他们如何才能更好地做出决定知之甚少。通过详细研究围绕特定自杀事件的情况，并询问亲属和朋友他们是如何理解正在发生的事情的，我们希望能阐明这一被忽视的领域。我们将研究30个自杀案例，每个案例访问3-4个人，以建立一个平衡的图景。我们将采访已故的S医生以及家人和朋友，试图找出外行和专业人士可以共同支持自杀个人的方式。我们的目标是发现：谁与死者有联系；他们对他/她的痛苦有多大的意识和他们如何解释；他们采取了什么行动；以及哪些额外的知识、技能和支持可能使他们能够以不同的方式处理情况并可能防止致命的结果。研究结果将使我们更清楚家人、朋友和其他人士在识别和支援自杀人士方面所扮演的角色，并有助我们制订措施，提高公众对精神健康的认识。该小组由埃克塞特半岛医学院、布里斯托尔大学和斯旺西大学的研究人员以及纸莎草纸(预防青少年自杀)的代表组成。

Suicide prevention is everybody?s business. Previous research has concentrated heavily on the contribution that doctors and health professionals can make, due to the fact that those who take their own lives are usually suffering from a treatable mental disorder. Attention has also focused on government initiatives to make methods of suicide less accessible, for example by reducing the pack sizes of paracetamol and other commonly used drugs. These measures are helpful, but we also need to be looking at the contribution that ordinary people can make. Relatives, friends and colleagues are usually the first to know when someone is deeply troubled or distressed. They may think it is ?perfectly normal in the circumstances? (after a relationship breakdown, for instance) and assume that the person will get over it in time. Most of us do eventually recover from setbacks, but some do not. Relatives and friends need to make judgements about the seriousness of the distress, about how to respond to it and about whether to seek professional help. These are difficult and complex decisions, and we know very little about how people make them and how they can be better equipped to do so. By studying in detail the circumstances surrounding particular suicides and asking relatives and friends about the way in which they understood what was going on, we hope to illuminate this neglected area. We will study 30 cases of suicide, in each case interviewing 3-4 people in order to build up a balanced picture. We will interview the deceased?s doctor, as well as family and friends, to try to identify ways in which lay people and professionals can work together to support a suicidal individual.We aim to discover: who was in contact with the deceased; how aware they were of his/her distress and how they interpreted it; what actions they took, and what additional knowledge, skills and support might have enabled them to manage the situation differently and possibly prevent a fatal outcome. The findings will give us a better understanding of the role that families, friends and others can play in identifying and supporting suicidal individuals, and will enable us to develop initiatives to promote public mental health awareness. The team consists of researchers at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter and at the Universities of Bristol and Swansea, together with a representative of PAPYRUS (Prevention of Young Suicide).