Suicide Prevention 17 Environmental Risk Factors Include: ● Barriers to health care ● Cultural and religious beliefs such as a belief that suicide is noble resolution of a personal problem ● Suicide cluster in the community ● Stigma associated with mental illness or help-seeking ● Easy access to lethal means among people at risk (e.g. firearms, medications) ● Unsafe media portrayals of suicide What are protective factors? There are some individual characteristics and things we can do in our environment that may help protect people from suicidal thoughts and behavior.There is not as much research about these protective factors as there is about risk factors, however identifying and understanding them is very important. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) identify that the risk for suicide may be reduced when “protective factors” are present. In general, protective factors can help a person to recover or “bounce back” in the face of stress and adversity. Protective factors include: ● positive social supports ● a sense of responsibility for others, such as having children in the home (except when the person has postpartum depression or psychosis) or having pets ● positive coping skills ● a positive relationship with a medical or mental health provider ● self-efficacy (a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations) ● a religious belief that suicide is wrong. SUICIDE PREVENTION cont’d continued
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