Attitudes of medical doctors towards suicide and criminalization of attempted suicide in Ghana
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Date
2015-04-17
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University of Ghana
Abstract
Attitudes affect willingness to provide help for suicidal persons.
Consequently, attitudes of key health professionals such as nurses,
psychologists, psychiatrists and physicians have been examined.
Although physicians are a key group in the management of suicide
attempters, to the best of our knowledge, no study has examined their
attitudes towards suicide. This study therefore examined 15 (10
males,5 females) medical doctors' attitudes towards suicidal person,
what they perceive as risk factors for suicide and their views on the
law that condemns attempted suicide. The methodology was qualitative
and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results
showed that the majority expressed empathic attitudes towards
suicidal person (with only 5 condemning the act on the basis of
religious values). Further the medics ' perceptions of the risk factors
for suicidal behaviour fell within the biopsychosocial model (depression,
loneliness, relationship distress, joblessness etc) more than the
biomedical. Consistent with their empathic attitudes toward suicide,
the majority of medics (11 out of 15) supported a repeal of the criminal
code predicated on a "sick view" of the suicidal person as someone
who needs help more than "a criminal "who must be prosecuted. The
implications of the findings towards decriminalizing suicide in Ghana
are addressed.
Description
School of social sciences colloquium
Keywords
psychiatrists, sick view, suicidal behaviour, biopsychosocial model