Between Hippocrates and God: Ugandan mental health professional's views on suicide |
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| Authors: | Birthe Loa Knizek Eugene Kinyanda Charity Sylvia Akotia Heidi Hjelmeland |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Nursing , S?r-Tr?ndelag University College , Trondheim , Norway birthe.l.knizek@hist.no;3. Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute , Entebbe , Uganda;4. Department of Psychology , University of Ghana , Accra , Ghana;5. Department of Social Work and Health Science , Norwegian University of Science and Technology , Trondheim , Norway;6. Department of Health Surveillance and Suicide Prevention , Norwegian Institute of Public Health , Oslo , Norway |
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| Abstract: | A negative attitude towards suicide is generally assumed to be predominant in low-income countries. In order to understand the negative attitude in general it is necessary to look at how religion and morality influence the attitudes. Our aim in this qualitative interview study was to investigate what attitudes professional mental health workers in Uganda bear towards suicide and suicidal persons. The professionals argue for their attitude by employing religious, communal and medical ethics arguments, which draw both in a negative and positive direction. The professionals are in general unambiguously negative towards suicide and positive towards suicidal people who are mentally ill. In cases other than mental illness non-accepting attitudes surface. This is discussed against previous research showing that effective treatment of suicidal people is to be based on a trusting and accepting relationship. |
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| Keywords: | attitudes Uganda professionals suicide ethics morality spirituality |
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