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Suicide prevention

Guest Editors:
Jason Bantjes: University of Cape Town, South Africa
Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie: University of Ghana, Ghana


BMC Public Health called for submissions to our Collection on suicide prevention. 
The World Health Organization estimates that almost 800,000 people die from suicide every year which equates to approximately one person every 40 seconds. This makes it one of the leading causes of death globally. Suicide is largely preventable and prevention strategies should involve comprehensive public health approaches which can decrease risk by addressing factors such as substance abuse, poor quality family relationships, inequalities in access to services and lack of social connectedness.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Jason Bantjes: University of Cape Town, South Africa

 Jason Bantjes is a Chief Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and serves as a Deputy Director in the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Substances Research Unit (ATODRU).  He is an honorary professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. Previously he worked at the Institute for Life Course Health Research (Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University), where he still holds an extra-ordinary appointment. He also practices as a psychologist and psychotherapist, and has been actively involved in the training of clinical psychologists at Stellenbosch University.  He is an associate editor of the journal BMC Public Health. His current research focuses on mental health promotion and suicide prevention, with a particular interest in the wellbeing of adolescents and young adults.

Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie: University of Ghana, Ghana

Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie is a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Accra. He is a Community and Applied Health Psychologist by training, but he also has a strong inclination towards General Psychology. His research focuses on understanding and preventing adolescent self-harm, suicide, and child sexual abuse in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). He is passionate about developing community-based and in-school interventions to promote adolescent mental health in LMICs, mainly those within sub-Saharan Africa. He has keen interests in the application of multi-ecological frameworks and interdisciplinary models to understand adolescent self-harm and suicidal behaviors. He is passionate about and supports Open Science in self-harm and suicide research and practice.  
 


About the collection

BMC Public Health called for submissions to our Collection on suicide prevention. 

The World Health Organization estimates that almost 800,000 people die from suicide every year which equates to approximately one person every 40 seconds. This makes it one of the leading causes of death globally. Although not all suicide attempts result in death, these individuals may still experience serious injuries that can have long-term effects on their health. They may also experience depression and other mental health concerns.

Suicide is largely preventable and prevention strategies should involve comprehensive public health approaches which can decrease risk by addressing factors such as substance abuse, poor quality family relationships, inequalities in access to services and lack of social connectedness. 

BMC Public Health had launched this collection on suicide prevention which is particularly interested in research in low- and middle-income countries and other resource constrained settings where as many as 77% of suicides occur. We welcomed for research addressing any of the following:

  • Access and delivery of suicide care, particularly in diverse cultural contexts and resource constrained settings
  • Creating protective environments through community-based policies and practices
  • Promotion of healthy societal connections
  • Support of individuals and communities bereaved or impacted by suicide
  • Support of at risk individuals or people who have attempted suicide
  • Social, cultural, political and contextual factors that shape suicidal behavior
  • Suicide in marginalized communities or other populations historically excluded from suicide research
  • Novel and promising interventions that show potential to increase the reach of suicide prevention strategies



Image credit: Pixel-Shot / stock.adobe.com

  2. Previous studies have associated videogame playing and social media use with suicidal behaviors together with lower stress coping or poor emotion regulation strategies. Due to the inconclusive evidence regardi...

    Authors: Andrés Chamarro, Adrian Díaz-Moreno, Ivan Bonilla, Ramon Cladellas, Mark D. Griffiths, Maria José Gómez-Romero and Joaquín T. Limonero
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:326
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Discharged psychiatric patients are at higher risk of suicide due to various risk factors in their lives compared to the general population. However, specific problems and needs of these patients after dischar...

    Authors: Tiantian Fu, Huiming Liu, Chang Chen, Bin Zhang, Guanjie Chen, Yuanhan Bai, Jinghua Li and Fengsu Hou
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2024 24:64
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. As the HIV epidemic among MSM in China continues, Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM) face various mental health difficulties, including suicide ideation, depression, and stigma. The current study aims to ...

    Authors: Jiaqi Fu, Xu Chen, Zhenwei Dai, Yiman Huang, Weijun Xiao, Hao Wang, Mingyu Si, Yijin Wu, Ling Zhang, Shu Jing, Xin Liu, Fei Yu, Guodong Mi and Xiao-You Su
    Citation: BMC Public Health 2023 23:2117
    Content type: Research Published on: