Suicide Prevention: University Students’ Narratives on Their Reasons for Living and for Dying

Abstract

Social isolation and loneliness are increasing in our contemporary western society and seem to correlate with suicide in adolescents and young adults. Social Workers are a potential resource to create such initiatives and projects that promote inclusion and cohesion within communities, a protective factor against suicide. Sixty-two Social Work BA students participated in a Death Education course based on education on suicide prevention. Participants carried out two activities. First, they were invited to complete two written semi-structured interviews on young people’s reasons for living and dying. Second, they were invited to design suicide prevention interventions targeted at their peers and adolescents. Data were analyzed qualitatively within the Thematic Analysis framework. As regards the first activity, four main themes were identified: (1) Internet and social media; (2) social isolation and loneliness; (3) the importance of proximal relationships; and, (4) the importance of networking between proximal relationships, educational institutions and mental health services. Whereas, as for suicide prevention interventions, three main ideas were identified: (1) suicide prevention through community and networking between services; (2) academic institutions: high schools and universities; and, (3) suicide prevention through new technologies. To conclude, Death Education as education on suicide prevention can offer young people a space in which to voice their and their peers’ reasons for living and dying and to reflect upon their contribution to suicide prevention as students and as future professionals.

Investigation on the Death View of Medical Students and Its Influencing Factors in China

“…Death education is through the way of education, to guide students to recognize the essence of death, to clarify the value of life, overcome the fear of death, anxiety, and to set up the correct view, comfortable in the face of death, to better deal with all kinds of setbacks and suffering in life, belongs to a kind of preventive education "to view life by death". Studies at home and abroad indicated that death education for medical students can signi cantly improve their attitude towards death, reduce their death anxiety, strengthen their re ection on life and death [26] , promote medical students to actively face dying patients [21,[27][28] , and also be used to educate people about suicide prevention [29] and enhance professional identity [30] . At the moment of the normalization of COVID-19's epidemic situation, medical students who have received death education can better face the problems of disease and death [31][32] .…”

Educational agents and institutions called into action in suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention

“…One of the saddest aspects of teen suicide is the frequently missed opportunity to stop it ( Mulrine, 2001 ). Many studies underscore the importance of suicide prevention education throughout the high school and college years ( King et al, 2008 ; Joshi et al, 2015 ; Poland and Ferguson, 2021 ; Testoni et al, 2021 ; Chaniang et al, 2022 ; Stickl Haugen et al, 2022 ; Fadillah et al, 2023 ). However, difficulties associated to staff shortages, ever-increasing responsibilities for student well-being ( Ayer et al, 2022 ) and shortage of guidelines on the targets and methods of safe and effective awareness programs are highlighted ( Grosselli et al, 2022 ).…”

Suicide Cases in Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan; Factors and Safety Implications

“…It is essential to realize that students with suicidal thoughts and tendencies in the most modern societies have reported reasons such as social narratives and their loneliness based on a difference of perspective from the dominant narrative especially mentioning the use of social media. Interestingly they also mentioned how the close relationships among families and friends could help them reduce these tendencies (Testoni, Piol, & D Leo, 2021).…”