• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.109-123
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• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between views on suicide, death, and life and lifetime suicidal attempts in the Korean context. Methods: Multiple logistic regression model was tested using data from Korean General Social Survey of 2009. We utilized the nationally representative survey data obtained via multistage stratified area probability sampling design from 1,599 respondents aged ${\geq}18$ years. Results: The proportion of lifetime suicidal attempts was 12.1% of entire sample in Korea. Some components of views on suicide and death influenced significantly on lifetime suicidal attempts after adjusting for demographic and health-related factors. The positive view on suicide(OR=0.76, 95% CI: 0.62-0.94), the naturalistic view on afterlife(OR=0.37, 95% CI: 0.67-0.99) and death concern(OR=0.67, 95% CI: 0.55-0.83) were risk factors of lifetime suicidal attempts. In contrast, the social responsibility view on suicide(OR=1.17, 95% CI: 1.00-1.37) and the transcendental view on afterlife(OR=1.25, 95% CI: 1.02-1.54) lowered the risk. Conclusions: Practical implications of the findings were discussed exploring policy evidences to screen high risk groups out and to reframe educational programs for suicide prevention. Strategic health messages need to be developed and transmitted for prevention of suicide.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.258-269
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand and analyze the experience of restoration among Korean elders with suicide ideation. Methods: A phenomenological research method guided data collection and analysis. A total of five elders having had suicide ideation participated. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews. All interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Coding was used to establish different concepts and categories. Results: As the results of analysis, the following three constituents have been found as a retrospective focus based on the primary suicide ideation: expanding their view and facing reality, reconstructing their view about life and death as well as self. Conclusion: The results of this study may contribute to health professionals working at various crisis settings to understand Korean elders with suicide ideation.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.72-86
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the suicide ideation and survival experience of Korean elders in America. Methods: A phenomenological research method guided data collection and analysis. A total of five elders reported having had suicide ideation participated. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews. All interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Coding was used to establish different concepts and categories. Results: The following three constituents have been identified: retrospective focus based on the suicide ideation through the immigrant life, facing reality through comparison between the life in America and in Korea, survival skills and constructing view of life. Conclusion: The result of this study may contribute for health professionals working at various crisis settings to understand Korean immigrant elders with suicide ideation.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.183-189
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to evaluate community mental health professionals and hospital workers attitude and awareness towards suicide. Methods : This study investigated 264 community mental health professionals and 228 hospital workers. SOQs (Suicidal Opinion Questionnaires) were used from July 2007 to September 2007. After a factor analysis for the attitude towards suicide, the items on ethics, mental illness, religion, risk, and motivation were included in the subsequent analysis. Results : There were significant differences in the attitude towards suicide according to religion, age, educational background, the marriage status, the economic position, and different professional licenses. Hospital workers' view was different from the community workers'. The hospital workers judged that suicide was due to mental illness, and suicide was high for the people in a special environment and who lacked motivation, which caused them to fall in a dangerous situation. For the lower educational group, they thought that suicide was attributable to mental illness. The awareness for suicide was significantly higher in the group with a postgraduate education, unmarried people, mental health professionals and the persons who had concern and experience with suicide. The factors that had an influence on the awareness of suicide were the items of mental illness, religion, risk and motivational factors. Conclusions : This study suggested that the factors to increase the awareness and attitude for suicide were the experience of increased education and case management of suicide. Therefore, education dealing with suicide and reinforcement of crisis management programs should be developed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.649-671
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to identify the meaning of performance experienced in the process of practicing at the elderly suicide prevention center. Therefore, the actual results perceived from the subjective viewpoints of the chiefs, staff and service users from the public institutions, which offer the elderly suicide prevention services were examined. The results classified the service provider's view, service users view and multi-dimensional view. The research method is a case study of qualitative research method. The results of the study found that the analysis commonly perceived from the perspectives of both the chiefs and staff from the public institutions offering elderly suicide prevention service were 'the perception of structural obstacles during the process of practicing the services and focused on the achievement of experiencing changes in the service users and the community'. On the other hand, the analysis from the perspective of the service users turned out to be 'focusing on changes in the users'internal perception according to service experiences'. The meaning and essence of the analytical results perceived from each perspective are summarized as follows. First, the analytical results perceived of the chiefs of public institutions offering elderly suicide prevention service were 'the process in which the identification of the institution is rediscovered through the service'. Second, the analytical results perceived by the staff from the institution were 'being acknowledged in the community and organization while experiencing changes in the service users in the process of struggling to survive in such community and organization'. Third, the analytical results perceived by the service users were 'holding on to the lifeline at the edge of a precipice'. Based on the results, political and practical implications of elderly suicide prevention service were discussed.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.165-196
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• 2008

Recently the Supreme Court held that "in cases in which a patient suffering from a mental disorder attempts to commit suicide, fails, and then succeeds in a subsequent attempt, the following circumstances must be present in order to acknowledge reasonable causation between the negligence of the hospital with regards to taking care of the patient and the death of the patient; there must have existed negligence on the part of the hospital with regards to their failure to stop the 1stsuicide attempt, injurious aftereffects must have been caused to the patient by the1stsuicide attempt, and said aftereffects must have been the main cause for the 2nd successful suicide attemtp." This, in effect, lessens the requirements of past holdings of the Supreme Court which held that "to acknowledge reasonable causation between the negligence of the hospital and the patient that commits suicide, the patient must have experienced such severe physical and mental suffering from the previous attempt so that they could not help but choose to commit suicide". The fact that the Supreme Court did not clearly state such changes in their view on this matter should be corrected. Also, the fact that the court only held the hospital liable for damages of less than 50 million won, only calculating damages up to the point when the deceased passed, is inadequate compared to other cases and should be corrected.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.123-134
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand and describe the experiences of young Korean women with attempted suicide. Methods: The data were collected by individual interviews from four women who attempted suicide during 2008-2009. A total of 25 hours interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using feminist phenomenology to reflect and respect the participants' view and experience as much as possible. Results: Five theme clusters and ten themes emerged from the analysis. Five theme clusters include "anger resulting from others-oriented life," "guilt resulting from selfish life," "confusion resulting from unbalanced life between self and others," "attempted suicide resulting from the chaos of life as a whole," and "peace resulting from balanced life between self and others." While these theme clusters represent the phases of life experience, ten themes indicate specific problems or strategies raised during these phases in the context of male-oriented Korean patriarchal society. Conclusion: The results of the study provide insights by deeply understanding of life of young women who attempted suicide in the Korean sociocultural context with the ideology of the subjection of women.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.91-102
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• 2014

Purpose - Today, the importance of the service industry has increased. Social welfare businesses that follow the non-profit principle have neglected the distribution of the service. However, an intangible service, when produced and consumed, has a similar service delivery system to common service distribution and social welfare. Therefore, the author has assumed the efficiency of the service delivery system of social welfare to be equivalent to the service distribution industry. Hence, various kinds of social welfare services for the prevention of elderly suicide, from the perspective of distribution, are discussed. Studies on generational relations have thus far investigated depression from parent-children conflict, and satisfaction with their lives. Studies on the relationship between family solidarity and elderly suicide by analyzing existing social problems are rare. This study investigated the effects of family solidarity between old parents and adult children upon elderly suicide by analyzing serious psychological and social problems. This study revealed basic measures for elderly suicide prevention through services that could elevate family solidarity from the perspective of social welfare service distribution. Research design, data, and methodology - The subjects were 468 elderly, 65 years or older, at 18 senior welfare centers and halls for the elderly at Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. Questionnaire surveys, excluding invalid answers, were analyzed. Convenience sampling was used from February 5, 2014 to March 5, 2014. The findings were: First, women and those having spouses with advanced educational backgrounds and social activities had primary solidarity such as contact solidarity, affectionate solidarity, functional solidarity (giving help), and functional solidarity (receiving help). In addition, those who had good health, from a subjective point of view, had more solidarity. Second, the elderly who were men and single, and who had poorer educational backgrounds thought of suicide, lacked social activities, and had poor health, from a subjective point of view. Third, family solidarity between old parents and adult children had significantly negative influence on the suicidal ideation of the elderly. Results - The study revealed the following implications. First, the preparation for old age should consider not only economic welfare but also the psychological welfare due to the relationship with children. Second, the phenomenon of elderly suicide because of a lack of family solidarity could increase national loss and have great influence upon welfare in old age. Therefore, planning of welfare services for the elderly should consider the value of relationships with children to improve the psychological welfare of the elderly. Third, the social expenses of government-oriented support for parents should be discussed from the people's point of view. Conclusions - The subjects of the study comprised the elderly at Seoul and Gyenggi-do; therefore, it would be difficult to extrapolate the findings to all the elderly in the nation. The subject visited senior welfare centers as well as halls for the elderly; therefore, it would be difficult to assume that the trends were representative of the elderly in the nation.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.552-566
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• 2015

This paper deals with suicide that has become a serious problem in our society as well as in the world today from a Christian perspective. Historical position regarding suicide is divided into two; some see it as a brave and honorable act and give approval to it, the others view it as act of giving up the life that is given by God and are opposed to it. Though suicides in the Bible are mostly committed to maintain honor, because of Augustin's position it became negative in Christianity, leading to a thought that one who committed suicide goes to hell. Why then people commit suicide? The views of scholars on the cause of suicide are divided into three; biological, psychological, sociological. My position is that though each or all of them contribute to suicide, yet the decisive factor is on how a person reacts to them. Major factor of suicide is how humans as interpretive beings accept the present despair. On the basis of this understanding of suicide and humans, I conclude this paper with three new recognitions as an essential answer to suicide. First, humans are made in God's image and belong to Him, thus their life is precious. Second, Christianity views humans as ones look for the hope in the future as the eternal life. Third, suicide is a violation of the commandment 'do not kill' yet it is not an act of sin but a disease that needs to be cured. To achieve this Christianity must not only spread the idea of respect for life and also run suicide prevention center every city.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2015

Donguibogam's views on human life provide us with insight into suicide prevention by perceiving life as priceless. In addition to the approaches of modern medicine, we can employ 'mentally and physically integrative treatment' and 'prevention-based treatment' from Korean medicine as a therapeutic point of view. We can also employ 'I-Jeong-Byeon-Gi Therapy' and 'Oh-Ji-Sang-Seung Therapy' as therapeutic methods. In this paper, we consider these approaches and clinical adaptations for suicide prevention from the perspectives of Korean medicine.