Community Traumatic Events and the Temporal Distribution of Suicide and Calls to the Suicide and Crisis Hotline

Abstract

Survivors of community traumatic events (CTEs) are thought to be at an increased risk for suicide. Current studies of the impact of CTEs on suicide have (a) produced varied results and (b) not accounted for co-occurrences or series of CTEs. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between the temporal distribution of CTEs and the temporal distribution of suicide and calls to the crisis hotline in a Louisiana parish, taking into account co-occurrences and series of CTEs. The sample consisted of 11 years of data on suicidal deaths and 5 years of data on calls to the crisis hotline. Poisson regression was used to assess whether suicide patterns and hotline call volume were affected by CTEs. The distributions of suicide and calls to the crisis hotline were not affected by the presence of single, co-occurring, or series of CTEs. Though suicide prevention efforts are often increased after CTEs, this study indicates suicide prevention efforts should be ongoing and have a community-wide focus. Given the varied results across studies of CTE impact on suicide distributions, further research should focus on co-occurrence and series of CTEs rather than the historical trend of focusing on a single CTE. Also, psychological autopsies of people who died by suicide in the wake of a CTE should be conducted using phenomenology as the guiding qualitative paradigm.