Community-based Suicide Prevention in Humanitarian Contexts: Suicide First Aid Guidelines for Refugees

In this course, Dr. Erminia Colucci, Associate Professor, Dept of Psychology, Middlesex University, London, cites the grim statistics which provide the rationale for developing suicide first aid guidelines for refugees. The overall high prevalence of suicide, especially suicidal ideation and attempts in refugees (including internally-displaced persons), combined with recent large-scale crises (such as the pandemic and natural disasters) and chronic low access to mental health services have shown the need to develop training programs for community gatekeepers. Dr. Colucci outlines the suicide first aid guidelines developed for Sri Lanka, Japan, India, the Philippines, and India, and discusses in greater depth the guidelines of a pilot project she and colleagues created for Syria’s huge internally-displaced population.