Citation

Pei- I Lee, Chia-Yi Wu, Ming-Been Lee. J. Suicidol. (Taipei) 2022; 17(1): 23-29.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Taiwanese Society of Suicidology, Publisher Airiti)

DOI

10.30126/JoS.202203_(1).0002

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Firefighters have long-term exposure to stress and crisis, which makes them a vulnerable population to suicide. The high prevalence of suicidal behavior and mental comorbidities among firefighters has been reported in many articles. However, the risk factors of suicidal behavior are multifaceted. Current literature is limited to the trauma-related experiences of firefighters and lacks the investigation of suicide risk factors such as organization and mental health help-seeking issues. Therefore, this review applied the Ecological System Theory to comprehensively analyze suicidal behaviors among firefighters within the context of microsystem (e.g., working conditions, family), mesosystem (e.g., work-family conflicts), exosystem (e.g., policies and media), macrosystem (e.g., organizational structure and stigma for seeking mental care), and chronosystem (e.g., the long-term effect of exposure and from childhood abuse across the aging process). Multi-level suggestions of mental health programs following the directions from this theory are highlighted. The findings of this review inform future suicide prevention strategies in terms of early detection and management of suicide warning signs among firefighters.

Language: en

Keywords

mental health; suicidal behaviors; firefighters; ecological system theory