What is it about?
This article explores the cultural values affecting near-lethal suicide attempters’ help-seeking behaviours, which determine their decision to contact services for help. Six Chinese survivors of intentional near-lethal self-poisoning were interviewed and their medical records examined. Some attempters stayed in non-contact with services before attempts because they perceived service as irrelevant and unhelpful. Others preferred resolving their personal problem themselves and maintaining personal dignity by not seeking help. Service providers should be trained to be sensitive to these individual values to allow the delivery of a culturally-appropriate service for this population and take a reference to the empowerment model when developing interventions for this high-risk group.
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Why is it important?
This paper argues that cultural values of self-reliance and shame avoidance would over-dominant their help-seeking for professional service during the last stage of near-lethal suicide attempts
Perspectives
This paper was solely conducted, analyzed and authored by myself, which allowed me to explore the subtle, brief but significant decision-making that suicide attempters made before their attempts. How these attempters perceive help is important to us in reflecting on how much we can do even more for them in terms of both services and research.
Yik Wa Law
University of Hong Kong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Roads less taken: Pathways to care before near-lethal suicide attempts, International Social Work, August 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0020872818796135.
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