When It is Darkest: Understanding Suicide Risk

In this course, Dr. Rory O’Connor, Ph.D., Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Glasgow, cites findings from many studies to show the trends in anxiety, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation, especially in the recent context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenging the notion that “we are all in the pandemic together”, Dr. O’Connor explains how some groups in the population have fared much worse in terms of frequency of suicidal ideation and attempts. O’Connor proposes his Integrated Motivational-Volitional Model of suicidal behaviour, using statistical analysis to show the volitional factors which cause people to “cross the precipice” from suicidal ideation to acting on those thoughts. Safety planning, with collaboration and compassion, is an important intervention to prevent suicide.