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Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

scientificamerican.com

11–20 of 115 posts

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better than having your furry friend attempt to eat you after you commit suicide - the terrifying part is this is exceedingly common, even among smaller breeds.

Why "even among the smaller breeds."

A human can be...20x bigger than a small cat/dog, easily. It's not that usual for animals to eat something that much bigger than them. Much more common among carrion scavengers, but still kind of notable.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#12
One point about suicide prevention that I think deserves a little more mention: people who survive an attempt typically do not ever commit suicide [1]. Lifetime survival rates range across studies, but they hover around 90%.

Of course, 10% is much higher than the general population rate for lifetime suicide completion rate, which is more like 0.01%, and things are complicated by severity of attempt (you’re more likely to end up in a hospital if you use pills instead of a gun). But still, most people who attempt suicide decide against it after the fact.

[1] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/survi...

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#13

> And the information revealed that people in crisis regularly turn their pets over to an animal shelter. I don't know why I assumed they were visiting the animals at the shelter to try to find comfort when I read the headline. The idea of planning to surrender your beloved pet before committing suicide is heartbreaking.

FWIW many people advocate preferring the phrase "died by suicide" (slightly awkwardly, but best they can do under the constraints) to reflect their belief (and perhaps yours) that suicide is a symptom of an illness, not a crime.

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/why-mental-health-advo...

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#14

> And the information revealed that people in crisis regularly turn their pets over to an animal shelter. I don't know why I assumed they were visiting the animals at the shelter to try to find comfort when I read the headline. The idea of planning to surrender your beloved pet before committing suicide is heartbreaking.

Shows that there are a lot of good people who commit suicide. Maybe a society would benefit if it went the distance to protect them.

...which may be helped by switching away from the historical accusatory language of "commit".

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/why-mental-health-advo...

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#15

This is a great example of why quantitative research isn't always enough, and this sort of "ethnography" of suicide qualitative research is also important. Some times you have to find out what the ground conditions are that generate the data in order to really understand what's going on & generate insights.

How is this not quantitative research? It's counting pieces of information. All data analys comes from data. Quantitative research can't exist at all without it.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#16

> And the information revealed that people in crisis regularly turn their pets over to an animal shelter. I don't know why I assumed they were visiting the animals at the shelter to try to find comfort when I read the headline. The idea of planning to surrender your beloved pet before committing suicide is heartbreaking.

More heartbreaking would be if the pets of these suicide owners die of starvation over a period of terrifying, lonely days. It's more heartwarming, if anything, that a person who wishes to end their suffering still holds empathy and respect for the living.

The pets won't die of starvation. They tend to eat their former owners. Cats especially seem to go for the face. Source: am pathologist.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#17

> And the information revealed that people in crisis regularly turn their pets over to an animal shelter. I don't know why I assumed they were visiting the animals at the shelter to try to find comfort when I read the headline. The idea of planning to surrender your beloved pet before committing suicide is heartbreaking.

More heartbreaking would be if the pets of these suicide owners die of starvation over a period of terrifying, lonely days. It's more heartwarming, if anything, that a person who wishes to end their suffering still holds empathy and respect for the living.

People who feel their lives are so terrible it isn't worth going on are usually not monsters. It's usually someone else in their lives that is a monster.

They usually just have too many problems, not enough support and have spent too many years wrestling with it without resolution.

If they were monsters, they would probably be planning someone else's death, not their own. It seems all too common that people around them are a big part of their unresolvable problems.

People who turn to suicide are people who turn their pain inward, not outward. They just want their suffering to stop in a world that both has no answers and often isn't really trying to find them.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More heartbreaking would be if the pets of these suicide owners die of starvation over a period of terrifying, lonely days. It's more heartwarming, if anything, that a person who wishes to end their suffering still holds empathy and respect for the living.

The pets won't die of starvation. They tend to eat their former owners. Cats especially seem to go for the face. Source: am pathologist.

Well, your screen name was aptly chosen.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#19
post #15

This is a great example of why quantitative research isn't always enough, and this sort of "ethnography" of suicide qualitative research is also important. Some times you have to find out what the ground conditions are that generate the data in order to really understand what's going on & generate insights.

How is this not quantitative research? It's counting pieces of information. All data analys comes from data. Quantitative research can't exist at all without it.

There's certainly a quantitative component. It's easy and often useful to add some such components to qualitative research. But getting into the field, tagging along with the death investigator, seeing the whole process from begining to end, that's qualitative. You're seeing much more than just all of the numeric data captured.

I'm not saying quantitative research can exist without data, I'm not sure where you got that idea. But not all data is quantitative. Data that is non-numeric is qualitative data. A case-study, for example, is often qualitative, though incorporating plenty of numeric data in support.

Re: Suicide Data Reveal New Intervention Spots, Such as Motels and Animal Shelters

#20
Is there any merit to the idea that health workers can help people and their family with being prepared for the suicide?

I think we spend too much effort on avoidance without acknowledging that people come to a conclusion of ending their life for multiple reasons, and people aren't really falling for the prevention.

Did the underlying irreconcilable problem get solved? No? Okay imma head out.

Does the person have to be in pain or struggling with something? Intervention failed

Setting up cultural barriers doesn't prevent it, setting up religious mental barriers doesn't prevent it.

The crux of the idea is that suicide hurts those still living. Maybe there is room to prepare the living for that, instead of just being collateral damage in a failed or missed intervention opportunity.

My primary argument is that our culture is too one-dimensional on this issue and maybe shouldn’t just be prevent the suicide just because.

Does the above approach have merit? Why or why not?

(edit: just saw another poster who said people that attempt it and survive don't try it again 90% of the time. that somewhat influences my thoughts, but they still attempted)

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