Citation

Austin RCIII. Crisis Interv. 1971; 3(2): 28-30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1971, Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Once every minute, or even more often, someone in the United States either kills himself or tries to kill himself with conscious intent. Sixty or seventy times every day these attempts succeed. In many instances, they could have been prevented by some of the rest of us.2 Suicide prevention is not a new concept to social work, yet not too many social workers are entering this field of specialization. Social work research and literature related to suicide is very limited. This might be due partly to the social worker's orientation, and suicide showing a definite liaison to the medical profession. Social workers are accustomed to working with crisis-orientated situations, such as stress, familial, and community. However, the clinical aspects of suicide are very unfamiliar areas, hardly touched by the social work profession. Shneidman says that the first reason is that people who kill themselves are in a crisis in their lives, involving shame, guilt, emorse - even honor. There are not nearly enough social workers involved with the individual at the height of his crisis...

Language: en