Community Suicide Prevention

Its name is: EXCLUSION

“All human beings have an equal right to health and safety”. The Stockholm Manifesto for Safe Communities 1989.

The Suicide Process

Its name is: EXCLUSION

The “Safe Communities” Model in Suicide Prevention

Our name is: INCLUSION

The “Safe Communities” movement was developed around the world in order to enhance safety , by some communities

and the WHO Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion at the Karolinska Institutet of Sweden under the auspices of World Health Organization.

This movement aims at supporting communities in their safety enhancement activities.

At first the movement was involved in safety promotion through unintentional injury prevention

activities and is now developing many programmes with a

special focus on prevention of violence or suicide.

A community is not just the people who are in it.

We are talking wide concepts of safety!Same way that health is much wider than absence of disease.

Community suicide prevention and interventions to ease the pain of suicide within a community

are wider concepts than just suicide prevention as traditionally interpreted by the

health and psychological establishments.

More so, mental health promotion andpromotion of safe, healthy communities where people do not

commit suicide or if they do or attempt and fail, societal responses go beyond of what has been traditionally offered by

health institutions.

“Community interventions are distinguished by a shift in focus away from individual responsibility towards multifaceted community-wide interventions designed to ensure that

everyone in the community is involved.”

‘Safe Communities’ is a specific structured model

to work in communities with the purpose of preventing injuries and violence, and promoting

safety. In this particular case the model has to do with

what we do to prevent suicide and promote safety in relation to suicide and suicide attempts.

But it also meansinterventions to strengthen communities that

have been affected by suicides!

Principles for Safe Communities(1):

Multi- sectoral based structure responsible for safety promotion.

Involvement of the local community network.Covering all ages, environments and situations.

Showing a concern for high-risk groups and environments

Aiming at ensuring safety for vulnerable groups.Documentation of frequency and causes of injuries.

Based on a long-term process.

Principles for Safe Communities (2):

The community must undertake to:Evaluate processes and the effects of change.

Analyse the community’s organisations and their possibility of participation in the programme.

Involve the health and well-being organisations

Involve all levels in the community in solving the safetyproblems.

Disseminate experiences both nationally and internationally.

Be prepared to contribute to a strong network of “Safe Communities”.

‘Safe Communities’- a form of empowered deliberative democracy?

- The work is focused on specific, tangible problems;

- Solutions are developed through deliberation;

- Both ordinary people affected by the problems and officials are involved;

- The public decision authority is significantly developed to empowerlocal units; those are in turn linked to coordinate the distribution of

resources;

This empowered deliberation is accomplished primarily through thetransformation of State institutions rather than through voluntary work

developed in the civil society, secondary associations, or the market ”Deliberative Democracy”?!!

Safe Communities and Community Suicide Prevention

- The ‘Safe Community Model’ in theory and practice provide a framework for the job to do

- A model that needs to be developed- A Model that may be based on the principles

of ‘empowered deliberative democracy’

- So, let us learn from some experiences and then return to this discussion!

Involving a whole local community- Arjeplog in Sweden

Love is the best kick?

Counselling at the Emergency Hospital in S Korea

Counselling training for mental health caring nurses in Japan.

Involving the local Rescue Services in Suicide Prevention in Sweden

“Every individual counts – actually has the right tobe included – whether he or she suffers from exclusion or not.”

This is a fundamental principle for Community Suicide prevention!

How can a community achieve that goal?