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Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention

Suicide is an extreme, tragic act and an important subject for social inquiry. It is the rising public health issue prevalent in the Himalayan range of Pakistan. The young and educated population is more prone to suicide instead of using this prime phase of age productively. Unfortunately, the suici...

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Autores principales: Ullah, Zia, Shah, Nighat Akbar, Khan, Sonia Shamroz, Ahmad, Naveed, Scholz, Miklas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535598/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682627
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010880
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author Ullah, Zia
Shah, Nighat Akbar
Khan, Sonia Shamroz
Ahmad, Naveed
Scholz, Miklas
author_facet Ullah, Zia
Shah, Nighat Akbar
Khan, Sonia Shamroz
Ahmad, Naveed
Scholz, Miklas
author_sort Ullah, Zia
collection PubMed
description Suicide is an extreme, tragic act and an important subject for social inquiry. It is the rising public health issue prevalent in the Himalayan range of Pakistan. The young and educated population is more prone to suicide instead of using this prime phase of age productively. Unfortunately, the suicide problem remains unaddressed, the causes remain undefined, solutions are not in the works, and in situations when others play a part in driving someone to commit suicide, no one is being held accountable. This study is aimed at uncovering the root causes of suicide and proposing some preventive measures to mitigate the problem. Our team studied three years’ worth of data (2017–2019) on suicides from the office of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Chitral. In addition, we conducted semi-structured interviews of different stakeholders, including family members, neighbors, lawyers, and police personnel. The findings revealed that extended family pressures, the power dynamic between sustainers and dependents, family conflicts, and inheritance cases were the major causes of the domestic violence that preceded suicide attempts. Mental health issues, forced marriages, academic competitions, and flawed litigation processes were also among the leading causes of suicide. Awareness through education and religious sermons, strengthening healthcare organizations, restructuring family systems, establishing police complaint centers, effective prosecution processes, and imparting lifesaving skills have been identified as measures to prevent suicide. This study has theoretical and practical implications, as it adds certain novel variables regarding the causes and solutions of suicide to the existing body of literature and guides public authorities to strengthen institutions to intervene effectively.
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spelling pubmed-85355982021-10-23 Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention Ullah, Zia Shah, Nighat Akbar Khan, Sonia Shamroz Ahmad, Naveed Scholz, Miklas Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Suicide is an extreme, tragic act and an important subject for social inquiry. It is the rising public health issue prevalent in the Himalayan range of Pakistan. The young and educated population is more prone to suicide instead of using this prime phase of age productively. Unfortunately, the suicide problem remains unaddressed, the causes remain undefined, solutions are not in the works, and in situations when others play a part in driving someone to commit suicide, no one is being held accountable. This study is aimed at uncovering the root causes of suicide and proposing some preventive measures to mitigate the problem. Our team studied three years’ worth of data (2017–2019) on suicides from the office of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Chitral. In addition, we conducted semi-structured interviews of different stakeholders, including family members, neighbors, lawyers, and police personnel. The findings revealed that extended family pressures, the power dynamic between sustainers and dependents, family conflicts, and inheritance cases were the major causes of the domestic violence that preceded suicide attempts. Mental health issues, forced marriages, academic competitions, and flawed litigation processes were also among the leading causes of suicide. Awareness through education and religious sermons, strengthening healthcare organizations, restructuring family systems, establishing police complaint centers, effective prosecution processes, and imparting lifesaving skills have been identified as measures to prevent suicide. This study has theoretical and practical implications, as it adds certain novel variables regarding the causes and solutions of suicide to the existing body of literature and guides public authorities to strengthen institutions to intervene effectively. MDPI 2021-10-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8535598/ /pubmed/34682627 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010880 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ullah, Zia
Shah, Nighat Akbar
Khan, Sonia Shamroz
Ahmad, Naveed
Scholz, Miklas
Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention
title Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention
title_full Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention
title_fullStr Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention
title_full_unstemmed Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention
title_short Mapping Institutional Interventions to Mitigate Suicides: A Study of Causes and Prevention
title_sort mapping institutional interventions to mitigate suicides: a study of causes and prevention
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535598/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682627
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010880
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