Department of Health, Hunter New England Local Health District, 72 Watt Street, Newcastle, NSW, 2320, Australia.
School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
BMC Psychol. 2022 Feb 7;10(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00724-9.
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death for Aboriginal Australians. There is an urgent need to actively engage with Aboriginal communities to better understand these issues and to develop solutions together to prevent deaths by suicide in Aboriginal communities.
Utilising a qualitative, thematic, cross-sectional design, we conducted focus groups in three communities in the Hunter New England area in New South Wales (Australia) to explore the perceptions and views of Aboriginal participants in relation to discussing suicide.
The key themes found to influence discussions about suicide in Aboriginal communities included the sense that suicide is a whole of community issue, the ripple effect of suicide deaths, silence about suicide and the impact of this silence, and being powerless to act. Participants described a reluctance to have discussions about suicide; feeling they had limited skills and confidence to have these sorts of discussions; and multiple and interrelated barriers to discussing suicide, including shame, fear and negative experiences of mental health care. Participants also described how their experiences maintained these barriers and prevented Aboriginal Australians from seeking help in suicidal crises.
Future initiatives should address the interrelated barriers by supporting Aboriginal people to build skills and confidence in discussing suicide and mental health and by improving access to, and the experience of, mental health care and psychosocial and community-based supports for Aboriginal Australians. We suggest trying to address any one of these factors in isolation may increase rather than decrease suicide risk in Aboriginal communities.
自杀是导致澳大利亚原住民死亡的主要原因之一。迫切需要积极与原住民社区接触，以更好地了解这些问题，并共同制定解决方案，以防止原住民社区发生自杀死亡事件。
我们采用定性、主题、横断面设计，在新南威尔士州（澳大利亚）亨特新英格兰地区的三个社区进行了焦点小组讨论，以探讨原住民参与者对自杀问题的看法。
研究发现，影响原住民社区中自杀讨论的关键主题包括：自杀是整个社区的问题的意识、自杀死亡的连锁反应、对自杀的沉默及其影响、以及无力采取行动。参与者描述了对讨论自杀问题的不情愿；感到自己在进行此类讨论方面的技能和信心有限；以及讨论自杀的多重和相互关联的障碍，包括羞耻、恐惧和心理健康护理的负面经历。参与者还描述了他们的经历如何维持这些障碍，使澳大利亚原住民在自杀危机中无法寻求帮助。
未来的举措应通过支持原住民在讨论自杀和心理健康方面建立技能和信心，并改善澳大利亚原住民获得心理健康护理以及心理社会和社区支持的机会和体验，来解决这些相互关联的障碍。我们建议，试图单独解决这些因素中的任何一个，可能会增加而不是降低原住民社区的自杀风险。
