Responses to Suicidality in Social Service Interventions: A Knowledge Inventory on Suicide Prevention in Ageing and Disability

Professionals within the social services often encounter individuals struggling with suicidality, but social work in suicide prevention is an underexplored area, reflected in the lack of training in education and among practitioners.

The project Responses to Suicidality in Social Service Interventions aims to address this gap through a collaborative project – involving the social services in Uppsala and the Department of Social Work at Uppsala University – to identify needs of knowledge and research related to professionals’ responses to service users’ suicidality, with a specific focus on aging and disability.

This focus is chosen because of the needs expressed by the social services in Uppsala and lack of research into suicide prevention in ageing and disability.The project is conducted over two years within three work packages:Collaborative workshops with researchers, service users, and key personnel within the Health and Social Care Administration in Uppsala Municipality to relate knowledge needs to institutional conditions;Thematic analysis of interviews with social workers to identify knowledge needs;Development of an implementation strategy to address knowledge needs.The collaborative workshops will be held five times during the project, covering the planning and discussion of interviews in relation to service users’ needs and the conditions within social services.

Interviews will be conducted with 20-30 social workers, focusing on challenges in suicide prevention within various social service activities and expectations from service users and other actors within suicide prevention.

The development of the implementation strategy focuses on how existing research can address identified knowledge needs and further research needs.The goal of this collaborative project is thus to identify knowledge needs in suicide prevention related to aging and disability and to see how existing scientific knowledge can be transferred to social service agencies.

Suicidality is overrepresented within groups with disabilities, such as autism and intellectual disabilities, and among older individuals.

The knowledge inventory, therefore, constitutes a particularly important addition to suicide preventive work in social services.

During the project period, it will lead to network discussions, tailored research communication, and, in the long term, applications for collaborative research projects that directly address needs in within the social services.