Devaluating Death Education through Short-Term Suicide Intervention Programs

Abstract

The wisdom and results of the Shaffer et al. study [1] are challenged regarding: 1) program content, 2) length of student exposure, 3) instructor competence, and, particularly 4) the implicit conceptualization of suicide as a simplistic rather than a complex, interpretive act. Certainly to conclude, or even to imply, that the effectiveness of all educational suicide intervention efforts are doomed, or that suicide is a function of mental illness rather than the stresses and losses experienced through living in mass society, is clearly unwarranted. The value of ongoing death education courses of semester length for the tempering of suicidal behaviors is argued.