To Prevent Suicide, We Need to Understand (the Meanings Of) Suicidality

In this course, Dr. Heidi Hjelmeland, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Mental Health at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, critically examines mainstream suicide research -dominated for decades by quantitative risk factor research - and argues that it does not assist suicide prevention. Such research, based on the biomedical model, explains suicidal behaviour principally as the result of mental disorders and various other risk factors. Consequently, the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders is seen as central to preventing suicide. However, risk factors, per se, including mental disorders, do not address what suicidality is about. An exaggerated focus on them is not only unproductive, but also engenders unfortunate consequences. Rather, suicidality must be understood in light of a person’s life history, developmental and relational issues: that is, in context. For this, we need the voices of people with lived experience accessed through qualitative research. Now a burgeoning investigative framework, qualitative research is increasingly illuminating the broad contextual understandings of suicide and suicidality. Professor Hjelmeland presents case examples, whose implications for suicide prevention are discussed.