Public Policy Implications

[rodrigovaldes]

This is a very interesting topic. Thank you for your presentation today.

Regarding public policy, the last sections of the paper show that design a policy regarding suicide is extremely complicated. Apparently, one of the public policies now is doing nothing. According to your research experience, is it possible that this strategy (doing nothing) can be optimal? My assumption is that talking about suicide will help to "normalize" it. Then, youngsters, especially those far from those who committed suicide, might start to consider attempting against their lives.

Which is the next piece of research that might be necessary to design a public policy?

[Sun-Kev]

While I haven't personally looked in depth into the body of research on whether discussing suicide would normalize it and thereby increase the risk of suicide, I'm inclined to think this might be a common misconception. When I was teaching at a public high school, trainings we attended emphasized the importance of addressing suicide directly and candidly. If we suspected a student was having suicidal thoughts or might attempt suicide, then best practice was to ask the student if they were having suicidal thoughts or were thinking about attempting suicide. According to the research presented there, people predominantly tend to answer honestly which would then allow preventative steps to be taken if needed.

[rodrigovaldes]

I believe if you suspect about a particular student, you need to do something. I totally agree. However, do general training will be an ideal policy? For instance, maybe there is some cluster of highly stressed students with suicidal thoughts in the X group, but the group Y (another grade and extracurricular activities) is non-suicidal at all. What is the effect of the policy on group Y? Is it negative? Who knows?

I am very intrigued on how to design a policy for this topic. And experiments are morally questionable.