what to do when employee says that he is suicidal
People in the suicide prevention field discourage the utilize of the term "committed suicide." The verb "commit" (when followed by an act) is generally reserved for actions that many people view every bit sinful or immoral. Someone commits burglary, or murder, or rape, or perjury, or adultery, or criminal offense – or something else bad.
Suicide itself might exist bad, aye, but the person who dies past suicide is not committing a criminal offense or sin. Rather, the act of suicide almost e'er is the production of mental disease, intolerable stress, pain, or trauma.
To portray suicide as a law-breaking or sin stigmatizes those who experience suicidal thoughts or effort suicide. This stigma, in turn, can deter people from seeking assist from friends, family unit, and professionals.
As Susan Beaton and colleagues annotation in their article, "Suicide and Language: Why We Shouldn't Use the 'C' Word":
"Suicide is not a sin and is no longer a crime, so nosotros should stop proverb that people 'commit' suicide. Nosotros now live in a time when we seek to sympathize people who experience suicidal ideation, behaviours and attempts, and to care for them with pity rather than condemn them."
"Completed Suicide" vs. "Died past Suicide"
Warning: I am a word geek. I love language, and I as well honey discussing its intricacies. Some will deride this discussion of suicide terminology equally political correctness gone amiss. Just language has ability. If changing our language can aid suicidal people to experience safer asking for help, and so changing language can salve lives.
With that said, I prefer the term "died past suicide" considering information technology avoids the judgmental connotations of "committed suicide."
Some people advocate for using the term "completed suicide" instead. I urge people not to employ the term "completed" suicide. I explained my objections to the term in this post, and they carry repeating.
What's Incorrect with the Term "Completed Suicide"
Recall of the sense of achievement you feel when you complete a big project. Then call back of the disappointment y'all feel when y'all don't.
Completion is good. Dying prematurely is usually a tragedy.
To complete something conveys success; to leave something incomplete conveys failure. In fact, at universities, if a student receives an "incomplete" in a grade and doesn't complete their remaining requirements on time, the "I" converts to an "F."
Some suicide prevention advocates use the term "completed suicide" because they view it every bit an adequate alternative to "committed suicide." Not all suicide prevention advocates concord, of class. The State of Maine's Suicide Prevention Program, for example, states on its website, "Both terms (committed and completed) perpetuate the stigma associated with suicide and are strongly discouraged."
The term "completed suicide" is peculiarly pop amidst academics. A search on Google Scholar yields 470 articles where "completed suicide" is used in the title. Hither are just a few examples:
- "Characteristics of Completed Suicides," in the Psychiatric Times
- "Adventure of Completed Suicide in 89,049 Young Males Assessed past a Mental Health Professional person," in European Neuropsychopharmacology
- "Suicidal Ideation and Subsequent Completed Suicide in Both Psychiatric and Non-Psychiatric Populations: A Meta-Assay," in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
Those examples actually bring me to a different complaint about the term "completed suicide." When "completed" is used as an adjective for suicide (instead of a verb), it is redundant.
Characteristics of completed suicides = characteristics of suicides.
Risk of completed suicide = risk of suicide.
Subsequent completed suicide = subsequent suicide.
Completed suicide is suicide. Why not simply say "suicide," so?
More than well-nigh the Term "Died past Suicide"
The Associated Press dictates the standards for appropriate linguistic communication in about mainstream newspapers and magazines (but non bookish journals). The AP changed its style book recently to discourage the utilise of the phrase "committed suicide." Instead, it recommends alternative terms like "killed himself," "took her life," and "died by suicide."
I accept no objections to any of these terms. Every bit a directly substitute for "committed suicide," I prefer "died by suicide." I've heard only a couple complaints about this term, and none is that information technology perpetuates stigma against people who die by suicide, every bit the term "committed suicide" does, or that it portrays the deed of suicide as an accomplishment, equally the term "completed suicide" does.
The get-go complaint is that "died by suicide" is a little clunky. Unremarkably, nosotros say somebody died of something (like, "she died of cancer") not by something. Suicide is different, I approximate, because the term "died past her ain hand" also is in the vernacular.
The 2nd complaint I've heard from folks, especially my students, is that "died by suicide" is an unfamiliar term and hard to get used to using. It doesn't roll off the tongue.
Over time, the more you substitute the term "died by suicide," the more than natural it becomes. Likewise, over time, the more you say "died by suicide," the more than the term "committed suicide" will injure your ears.
And if you're like me, "completed suicide" will hurt your ears even worse. So delight, I urge you, say something else.
*
Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, is the author of "Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques for Professionals," a psychotherapist and consultant, and an associate professor at the Academy of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.
Copyright 2017 past Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW. Written for SpeakingOfSuicide.com. All Rights Reserved. Photos purchased from Fotolia.com.
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Source: https://www.speakingofsuicide.com/2017/09/21/suicide-language/
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