Ftanou Maria, Skehan Jaelea, Krysinska Karolina, Bryant Marc, Spittal Matthew J, Pirkis Jane
1Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Vic Australia.
Everymind, Newcastle, NSW Australia.
Int J Ment Health Syst. 2018 May 24;12:23. doi: 10.1186/s13033-018-0203-5. eCollection 2018.
Suicide and suicide-related behaviours are major public health concerns in Australia and worldwide. One universal intervention that has received an increased focus as a means of preventing suicide is the use of media campaigns. There is, however, a lack of understanding of the kinds of campaign messages that are safe and effective. The current paper aims to expand on this knowledge. The study objectives were to: (1) explore what suicide prevention experts consider to be essential characteristics of effective and safe suicide media campaigns; (2) develop suicide prevention media messages; and (3) explore the impact that these messages might have on different audiences.
We conducted a workshop in July 2015 which was attended by 21 experts (professionals with knowledge about suicide prevention and/or media campaigns, and people with a lived experience of suicide). The experts were split into three groups, and each group developed a suicide prevention message for one of the following target audiences: people at risk of suicide; family and peers of people at risk of suicide; and people bereaved by suicide.
The three groups generally agreed that these messages had to include two key characteristics: (1) validate or reflect the target group's issues and needs; and (2) promote help-seeking behaviours. They noted, however, that messages that might have a positive impact for one target audience might inadvertently have a negative impact for other target audiences. In particular, they were concerned that messages designed for family and peers about being supportive and looking for warning signs might leave those who had been bereaved by suicide feeling isolated, guilty or traumatised. Workshop participants highlighted that gaps exist in relation to the use of appropriate language, were unsure of how to create destigmatising messages without normalising or sensationalising suicide and commented on the lack of evaluative evidence for the efficacy of media campaigns.
Developing suicide prevention messages is complex and target and non-target audiences may interpret these messages differently to the way they were intended and the impact of such messaging may be detrimental. Caution needs to be applied when developing suicide prevention messages.
自杀及与自杀相关的行为是澳大利亚乃至全球主要的公共卫生问题。作为预防自杀的一种手段，媒体宣传活动受到了越来越多的关注。然而，对于安全有效的宣传信息类型，人们还缺乏了解。本文旨在拓展这方面的知识。研究目标如下：（1）探究自杀预防专家认为有效且安全的自杀预防媒体宣传活动的基本特征；（2）制定自杀预防媒体信息；（3）探究这些信息可能对不同受众产生的影响。
2015年7月，我们举办了一次研讨会，21位专家（具备自杀预防和/或媒体宣传活动知识的专业人士以及有自杀亲身经历的人）参加了此次研讨会。专家们被分成三组，每组针对以下目标受众之一制定一条自杀预防信息：有自杀风险的人；有自杀风险的人的家人和同伴；因自杀而失去亲人的人。
三组人员普遍认为，这些信息必须具备两个关键特征：（1）证实或反映目标群体的问题和需求；（2）促进寻求帮助的行为。然而，他们指出，对一个目标受众可能产生积极影响的信息，可能会无意中对其他目标受众产生负面影响。特别是，他们担心为家人和同伴设计的关于提供支持和寻找警示信号的信息，可能会让那些因自杀而失去亲人的人感到孤立、内疚或受到创伤。研讨会参与者强调，在使用恰当语言方面存在差距，不确定如何在不使自杀正常化或耸人听闻的情况下创建消除污名化的信息，并对媒体宣传活动效果缺乏评估证据发表了评论。
制定自杀预防信息很复杂，目标受众和非目标受众对这些信息的理解可能与预期不同，而且此类信息的影响可能是有害的。在制定自杀预防信息时需要谨慎。
