Nurturing a system of support: Purdue HHS professor highlights suicide prevention strategies

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu

Doug Samuel, associate professor of psychological sciencesPhoto provided

To bring new understanding amid a growing mental health crisis and climbing suicide rate, researchers like Doug Samuel, associate professor of psychological sciences in the Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences, are studying the risks and ways to prevent suicide across the United States. With his clinical training in suicide prevention, Samuel has focused his research on suicide risk in Indiana farmers to fill a research need that had not been as heavily studied.

To foster a culture of connection during Suicide Prevention Month and beyond, Samuel offers his advice on ways to identify risk factors for suicide and what individuals can do to help themselves and others.

What are the risk factors for suicide?

Risk factors include any history of suicidal behavior. A more passive risk factor is something like generally being really stressed out or depressed. External factors, such as major financial stressors or significant health events, such as a terminal diagnosis, often trigger feelings of hopelessness or helplessness. If somebody is expressing that there’s no hope for things to get better, that’s a key red flag. People who are giving away possessions or talking about a future without them would be a source of concern. Another major risk factor would be someone the person is close to recently dying, particularly if they died by suicide. Beyond that, identity issues like struggling with gender identity or sexual orientation can be major risk factors for suicide as well, more typically among younger people.

What could someone do to help if they notice risk factors in their loved one?

The No. 1 thing you could do is just express how much you care about the person if you’re noticing signs that make you worried. Even if you’re not worried about suicide — if you’re just worried that somebody is not really acting like they normally would — make sure they understand that you’re a resource for them. It’s not always easy — I think people tend to have this worry that if they ask about suicide, it will give the person the idea of suicide or make it worse. Thankfully, the science suggests that is not at all the case. It can really only help. I think it just takes a little bit of courage on everyone’s part to be able to say, “I want to ask about how you’re doing. What I’m seeing makes me worried about you. If there’s anything that I can do to help you, just know that I’m here for you.”

Another thing people can do is take QPR (Questions, Persuade and Refer) training. Purdue offers free online QPR training for students, faculty and staff. Others wishing to take QPR training can usually find opportunities at local churches or schools. QPR training teaches community members to use some basic skills, so when they see something, they are more equipped to do something about it.

What resources are available for someone struggling with suicidal thoughts?

In terms of resources for individuals, there’s the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255). The Indiana Suicide Prevention website also has a list of crisis lines and hotlines. Indiana will soon have an emergency line at 211 for mental health crises. It’s not yet available, but it will be something that will be available soon, and some Purdue Extension staff are actively involved with that. I want to also point out especially for farmers, the Farm Stress Team within Purdue Extension is doing some great work in terms of trainings and resources that are spread out across the state. Additionally, the Purdue Psychology Treatment and Research Clinics are run by our graduate students in the clinical psychology program and are always accepting new clients as adults or families or children. There’s also a website called Be Well Indiana that has a lot of mental health resources, such as mental health assessments.

However, if this is serious enough to seek out a mental health assessment, I would suggest making contact with a healthcare provider — it’s always better to have a person you can talk with if at all possible. This can be a primary care physician or a psychologist through Mental Health America, who can provide a more thorough assessment.

What is the focus of your research involving suicide and farmers?

There’s a suggestion that farmers have higher rates of suicide, but we don’t actually know for sure. So we sampled a fairly representative group of Indiana farmers to get a base rate of the suicide risk. That survey was just completed, so now we’re analyzing the data. One of the ideas we are pursuing is that farmers have a unique set of psychological factors, such as agricultural heritage — where farms have been owned by a family for generations, and farmers have a legacy to pass it from their ancestors on to the next generation. If they’re faced with a really significant stressor, such as difficulty paying the bills for the farm, they’re now faced with the loss of their home, the land they’ve had in their family for many years, and the sense that they’ve let down their ancestors and future generations. We believe that is a risk factor that may be particularly dangerous for farmers because the sense of hopelessness makes suicide potentially seem like more of an option. We’ve developed a measure of this agricultural heritage, and we’re trying to leverage that to understand whether it combines with a high stress level in determining if they actively contemplate suicide.