Actions of Lithuanian medical students of I-VI courses of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, after hearing a person talking about suicide

Margarita Slabadienė1

1Faculty of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

ABSTRACT

According to the data of 2017, there are 26,45 suicide cases per 100 000 people in Lithuania. There is no scientific study in Lithuania to analyze the performance of Lithuanian medical students to provide first-aid psychological counseling when there is a risk of suicide, therefore the thesis makes it an important, relevant, and valuable topic, especially to reduce suicide rates in the future.

Aim: To find out the actions of Lithuanian medical students of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), in case they hear a person talking about suicide, and the differences of responses between the sexes.

Methods: Between April and July 2019, an anonymous questionnaire-survey of 322 Lithuanian Medical Students of LSMU was conducted. The questionnaire consisted of questions created by the researchers.

Results: Most often, when the students hear another person talk about suicide, students would try to listen to him/her and 0.6% would ignore him/her. Students would recommend to contact to mental health professional, talk to the loved ones, try to discourage you from doing this, look for motivation to live, try to support, understand, not to judge, do not leave alone. 88.5% of medical students said they would like to learn more at university how to communicate with a person facing suicide crisis. 9.3% said they had enough knowledge. After hearing another person talking about suicide, female students is more likely students to report to a person’s relatives, and male students were more likely to ignore such way. Conclusions: 1. 95.7% of medical students who hear someone talking about suicide would try to listen to him/her and only 0.6% would ignore him/her. Students would recommend to consult a psychologist or other mental health professional, try to talk to that person’s loved ones, try to discourage such a move, look for motivation to live, try to support, understand, not to judge, not to leave alone. 2After hearing another person talking about suicide, female students would be more likely than male students to report to the person‘s relatives, and male students more than female students would to ignore such way.

Keywords: medical students, suicide