Glossary
4-7-8 Breathing Technique: A deep breathing exercise designed to promote relaxation and stress reduction, useful in managing the emotional demands of crisis intervention.
Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT): A screening tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify individuals with hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption.
Assessment: The process of evaluating or estimating the nature, ability, or quality of something.
Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSSI): A self-report tool measuring an individual’s attitudes, behaviours, and plans related to suicidal ideation.
Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS): A scale for evaluating the severity of suicidal ideation and behaviour, providing categories for ideation, behaviour, and lethality of attempts.
Contagion: In the context of suicide, the phenomenon where exposure to suicidal behaviours influences others to consider or commit suicide.
Crisis Intervention: Immediate and short-term psychological care aimed at assisting individuals in a crisis situation to restore balance to their biopsychosocial functioning and to minimize potential for long-term psychological trauma.
Cultural Competence: The ability of Gatekeepers and health professionals to understand and respect the values, beliefs, and practices of the community they serve.
Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST): A self-report instrument for identifying drug abuse or related problems, focused on consequences rather than frequency of use.
Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another, crucial for establishing trust and rapport.
Gatekeeper: An individual trained to identify signs of suicidal ideation or crisis and to direct them to appropriate help.
Gatekeeper Training: Educational programs designed to train non-mental health professionals to identify and respond to signs of suicide risk.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7): A questionnaire for screening the severity of generalized anxiety disorder symptoms.
High-Risk: Descriptor of an individual who will likely engage in suicidal behaviour imminently due to intense suicidal ideation, a specific plan, and means.
Impulsivity: A tendency to act on a whim, displaying behaviour characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences.
Interventions: Actions taken to improve a situation, especially a medical disorder or a social problem.
Low-Risk: Descriptor of an individual who does not have a specific plan or means to commit suicide and therefore are at a lower immediate risk for suicidal behaviour.
Mindfulness: A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, often used as a therapeutic technique to manage stress and emotional regulation.
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9): A clinical tool for identifying and measuring the severity of depression.
Peer Support: Emotional and practical support provided by and for individuals with shared experiences, particularly in mental health contexts.115
Postvention: Strategies implemented after a suicide has occurred, aiming to support the bereaved, reduce the risk of further suicides, and facilitate community healing.
Prevention Strategies: Planned measures and interventions aimed at stopping mental health issues from developing or worsening, thereby reducing the incidence of suicide.
Protective Factors: Characteristics or conditions that promote resilience and decrease the likelihood of an individual engaging in suicidal behaviour.
Psychological Autopsy: A research method used to study cases of completed suicide by reconstructing the deceased individual’s psychological state before death.
Psychological Disorders: Clinical conditions characterized by disruptive patterns of thought, behaviour, and emotions that impair daily functioning.
Referrals: Directing of someone to a different place or person for information, help, or action.
Risk Assessment: The process of identifying and evaluating factors that could contribute to a person’s potential for suicide.
Risk Factors for Suicide: Characteristics or conditions that increase the likelihood that a person may consider, attempt, or die by suicide. Can include previous suicide attempts, history of mental health conditions, substance abuse, access to lethal means, significant life changes or trauma, and a family history of suicide
Role Play: An educational activity in which individuals simulate a situation or perform a role to practice responses and interventions to potential real-life scenarios.
Safety Plan: A personalized, practical plan that outlines strategies for individuals at risk to cope with distress and control the immediate environment to prevent suicide.
Self-Stigma: The internalization of negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination related to seeking help for mental health issues, which can act as a barrier to accessing support and care.
Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOSH): A measure that assesses the degree to which individuals internalize negative beliefs about seeking psychological help.
Stigma: A mark of disgrace or infamy; a sign of severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are against cultural norms.
Suicidal Behaviours: Acts of self-harm with some intent to end one’s life, often associated with mental health conditions.
Suicidal Ideation: The consideration or planning of suicide, ranging from thoughts that life is not worth living to formulated plans to end one’s life.
Suicide: A major public health issue characterized by the intentional act of causing one’s own death.
Suicide Assessment: A systematic approach to identifying the likelihood that a person will engage in self-harm or suicidal behaviour.
Suicide Plan: A person’s formulated intent and method for ending their own life, including the timing, means, and circumstances of the planned suicide.
Warning Signs of Suicide: The earliest indicators that suggest an individual may be thinking about suicide – can include behaviours like talking about wanting to die, looking for ways to kill oneself, expressing hopelessness, withdrawing from others, and showing dramatic mood changes.