Book contents
- Understanding Suicide in the United States
- Understanding Suicide in the United States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Preface
- Chapter 1 A Brief View on the Social History of Suicide
- Chapter 2 Pain, Suffering, and Buffering
- Chapter 3 Allostasis
- Chapter 4 Suicide Demographics in the United States
- Chapter 5 Prevention, Identification, and Intervention
- Chapter 6 Building Resilient Individuals, Communities, and Societies to Prevent Suicide
- Chapter 7 Hope
- References
- Index
Chapter 6 - Building Resilient Individuals, Communities, and Societies to Prevent Suicide
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2023
- Understanding Suicide in the United States
- Understanding Suicide in the United States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Preface
- Chapter 1 A Brief View on the Social History of Suicide
- Chapter 2 Pain, Suffering, and Buffering
- Chapter 3 Allostasis
- Chapter 4 Suicide Demographics in the United States
- Chapter 5 Prevention, Identification, and Intervention
- Chapter 6 Building Resilient Individuals, Communities, and Societies to Prevent Suicide
- Chapter 7 Hope
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter summarizes an optimistic perspective of the progress that has been made and what is known about suicide, while highlighting the questions that remain. We point out that many traditional understandings of suicide focus on risk factors, problems, and deficits and suggest there may be a role of more positive constructs, such as resilience, optimism, hope, gratitude, and others. We discuss the potential role of resilience – at the individual, community, and societal levels – in reducing suicide, and how positive psychology can inform suicide prevention efforts. Interventions to build psychological capital, resilience, personal strengths, or community empowerment may be beneficial. Indeed, positive suicidology, and even critical suicidology to a certain extent, attempt to incorporate these aspects.
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- Information
- Understanding Suicide in the United StatesA Social, Biological, and Psychological Perspective, pp. 94 - 102Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023