As someone with personal experience of suicidality, I found that the approaches suggested in professional literature on how to help individuals facing suicidality were often not suitable for me. This led me to question what helps or does not help me survive. Based on this question, I decided to explore suicidality among young people. I do not claim that the results of professional research are incorrect, but I believe that they should not be generalized. I advocate for research into the needs of people in suicidal crises to be based on individuals with first-person experiences of suicidality, aligning with the principles of user perspective.
In my graduation thesis, I focus on the first-person experiences of young individuals who have faced or are still facing suicidality and have gone through acute suicidal crisis. I investigate the needs and desires they recognized during their acute suicidal crises, the type and source of help they received, and how they evaluated the help they were given.
In the first part of the thesis, I define suicidality from a professional standpoint as a multifaceted phenomenon and delineate the suicidal process. I continue with a comparison of suicidological and phenomenological perspectives, opting for the latter. I then introduce the concepts of crisis and suicidal crisis from the perspective of experts with lived experience. I also focus on what the experience of suicidality looks like from the perspective of those who have experienced it first-hand. Subsequently, I outline guidelines for helping individuals in a suicidal crisis. In the next subchapter, I emphasize the importance of the user perspective in social work, highlighting the power of user research. I specifically describe the role of the researcher with personal experience, as I conducted the research as a person with first-hand experience of suicidality.
I carried out a qualitative user-led research, conducting interviews with young women who had personally faced acute suicidal crises. I followed the concept of the user perspective throughout. The most important conclusions of the research state that individuals in acute crises are capable of expressing their needs and desires, that these needs and desires vary significantly among different individuals, and therefore, it is crucial to offer diverse forms of help in accordance with their wishes.
This research is intended for those with first-person experiences of suicidality and for anyone involved in helping people in suicidal crises. It aims to validate the experiences of people with personal histories of suicidality and present various forms of assistance that can help them survive. Additionally, it can encourage others to approach individuals in distress by asking about their experiences, needs, and what they do not want.
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