Three communities' knowledge, attitudes and behaviour regarding suicide

Abstract

Amidst social and political change in South Africa, a situation has arisen where people often do not know how to cope with a crisis. One possible way to deal with a crisis is to attempt suicide. Suicide rates for Africans have increased. This presents a problem as they cannot easily access existing crisis services. Therefore the aim of this study was to determine African and coloured people's knowledge, attitudes and behaviour regarding suicide. A total of 250 respondents, 50 coloured and 200 African, were randomly selected from Heidedal and Mangaung, two residential areas in greater Bloemfontein. Trained fieldworkers conducted interviews with the respondents. The respondents appeared to have negative attitudes towards suicide. They did, however, indicate that the community has sympathy for people who try to kill themselves and that there should be a service in the community to support people in an emotional crisis. Financial and relationship problems were likely to cause a person to contemplate suicide.