The aim of this study was to explore suicide attempters' experiences of personal stigma. This qualitative study included a focus group of 7 experienced clinicians and semi-structured interviews with 8 suicide attempters. Thematic analysis of the data yielded four main themes: seriousness, care, "badness," and avoidance. Experiences of stigma pervaded all contexts, but were most emotionally upsetting to the participants in interpersonal relationships. The findings show the importance of evaluating stigma for suicide attempters during suicide risk assessment and the need for specifically tailored interventions to combat suicide stigma at the individual level.

Background: The detrimental consequences of stigma have been recognized in extensive research on mental illness stigma, but experiences of suicide-related stigmatization have not received sufficient research attention. The lack of a simple self-report assessment of personal suicide-related stigma led to the work reported here. Aim: To develop and assess the validity of the Personal Suicide Stigma Questionnaire (PSSQ). Method: The item pool for PSSQ was based on qualitative data and was tested in a community sample of 224 adults (mean age = 32.68 years, 83% female, 92.9% Caucasian) who reported lifetime suicidality. Factor analysis was used for item selection. The Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale – Short form (SSMIS-SF) and Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised (SBQ-R) were used to assess validity of the scale. Results: Following analysis, 16 items, forming three highly interrelated factors (Rejection, Minimization, and Self-blame), were selected for the PSSQ. The PSSQ scores showed predicted relationships with mental illness stigma and suicidality, suggesting its validity. Limitations: The validity of the scale still requires further research in clinical populations. Conclusion: The newly developed PSSQ can be used to assess the levels of suicide-related stigma experiences of suicidal individuals.

The stories of people who attempt suicide are insufficiently reflected in suicide research in psychology. This article outlines a method using a visual timeline during the interviews to explore the narratives of suicide attempts. The method was successfully employed in two studies to collect data on the suicidal process from people with prior experience of suicide attempts. The advantages of the method in collecting comprehensive data, building rapport, and fostering participants’ insight are outlined. Strategies that were used to ensure safety of participants are described in addition to the requirements for interviewers seeking to apply this method.

The Interpersonal Psychological Theory of suicide proposes that the interaction between Thwarted Belongingness, Perceived Burdensomeness, and Acquired Capability for Suicide (ACS) predicts proximal risk of death by suicide. Instruments to assess all three constructs are available. However, research on the validity of one of them, the acquired capability for suicide scale (ACSS), has been limited, especially in terms of its clinical relevance. This study aimed to explore the utility of the different versions of the ACSS in clinical assessment. Three versions of the scale were investigated, the full 20-item version, a 7-item version and a single item version representing self-perceived capability for suicide. In a sample of patients recruited from a clinic specialising in the treatment of suicidality and in a community sample, all versions of the ACSS were found to show reasonable levels of reliability and to correlate as expected with reports of suicidal ideation, self-harm, and attempted suicide. The item assessing self-perceived acquired capacity for suicide showed highest correlations with all levels of suicidal behaviour. However, no version of the ACSS on its own showed a capacity to indicate suicide attempts in the combined sample. It is concluded that the versions of the scale have construct validity, but their clinical utility is limited. An assessment using a single item on self-perceived ACS outperforms the full and shortened versions of ACSS in clinical settings and can be recommended with caution for clinicians interested in assessing this characteristic.