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Estimating the Population of Survivors of Suicide: Seeking an Evidence Base
Author(s) -
Berman Alan L.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.2010.00009.x
Subject(s) - suicide prevention , empirical evidence , test (biology) , suicide rates , public health , population , psychology , empirical research , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , poison control , medicine , psychiatry , clinical psychology , medical emergency , environmental health , nursing , statistics , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , pathology , biology , mathematics
Shneidman (1973) derived an estimate of six survivors for every suicide that, in the ensuing years, has become an assumed fact underlying public health messaging campaigns in support of suicide prevention and postvention programs worldwide, in spite of it lacking either empirical testing or validation. This report offers a first test designed to derive estimates of suicide survivors and raises an array of empirical questions needing further study to reasonably address the impact of suicide on others.