Evaluation of Suicide Research in the Elderly

Evaluation of Suicide seek in the ElderlyA CRITICAL COMPARISON OF TWO RESEARCH APPROACHES TO SUICIDALITY IN THE ELDERLY the soft and three-figure paradigmsIntroductionSuicide whitethorn be considered a common and devastating emergency in the normal practice of mental health. It is a phenomenon that is worldwidely complex and inherently difficult to predict. Suicidality, which is the spectrum of psychological activities that culminates in the ultimate death of the individual, whitethorn be especially complicated in the gray. This is because large number of that age assemblage be known to traverse the continuum of self-destructive behaviour with extraordinary secrecy, determination and lethality. Thus, in that respect whitethorn be up to three new cases of remote self-destruction for e real one below the age of 25 days in many countries (Diego et al., 2004, Mello-Santos et al., 2005). Giving the intricate nature of the phenomenon in the elderly, understanding the immedia te and remote factors that may be suggestive of impendent death by felo-de-se may be an important bar to setting up targeted interventions before it is too late.In the circumstance of suicide research, immediate pointers to an impending suicide may, on the one hand, include a subjective experience with suicidal ideas or the wish to die. This genuinely personal experience may sometimes be expressed in signs and symptoms such as lecture or writing close the end. A phenomenon sometimes referred to as suicidal warnings (Rudd et al., 2006). In this regards, immediate factors for imminent suicide may also extend to the meanings attached to such notices by their recipients. The understanding of peoples experiences and meanings is strengthen by the qualitative research paradigm (Fossey et al., 2002). The more remote pointers to an imminent suicide may include correlates of suicidality deep down the larger cosmos, as against the individual. The investigation of such independent risk factors within the population, or a consistently generated sample from it, is underpinned by the quantitative research model (Godwin et al., 2003). To provide a clear understanding of the qualitative and quantitative frameworks, this discourse aims to critically compare two studies using contrasting approaches in elucidating the factors cerebrate to suicide in the elderly.The context and comparisonThis first study, hereafter referred to as Kjiolseth and Ekeberg (Kjolseth and Ekeberg, 2012), was an investigation of the experiences and replys of people to warnings they guide get about the suicidal intention of their elderly wards. The authors relied on the technique of psychological autopsy (Beskow et al., 1990). Wherein, they re-created the bunch of the suicide through interviews of 63 formal and informal wieldrs of 23 individuals who had died in that manner aged 65 years or over. The second study, hereafter referred to as Ojagbemi et al (Ojagbemi et al., 2013), examined the p redictive relationship between some(prenominal) health related variables and three behaviours occurring on a continuum leading to eventual death by suicide. The authors relied on a multi-stage probability sample of 2149 participants aged 65 years or over, and spread across a geographical area equivalent weight to a quarter of the national population.The main research question explored by Kjiolseth and Ekeberg was how did people perceive and react to suicidal warnings communicated to them by the elderly around them? Perception in this context may be broadly understood as the individuals cognizance of the events external to them. much(prenominal) perception may also feedback on how the individual will react. In the view of empiricists such as Locke (Baird et al., 2008) the awareness of externally occurring events may only be possible if they are mentally represented. In this regards, the earth is created in the mind of the recipient. Further, Bekerley (Atherton, 1987) contends that this reality is inherently modifiable according to previous experience. Therefore, since the previous experiences of different individuals may be inherently different, and dynamic, the proposition of a single or unitary reality may be less likely. In other words, the research question of Kjiolseth and Ekerberg may be best answered if the perception and reaction of a variety of carefully selected individuals who may have received the suicidal warnings are considered. Qualitative interviews may afford the opportunity for the researchers in this instance to generate more nuanced accounts from a wide selection of individuals who may be knowledgeable about the phenomenon of interest.In contrast to Kjiolseth and Ekerberg, Ojagbemi et al wanted to find out if there are indices of health and wellbeing in the universal population that may demonstrate predictive associations with suicidality among the elderly living in sub-Saharan African communities. This research question may suggest as f ollows firstly, by indices, the authors appear interested in numerical or value indicators of health and wellbeing. Secondly, by predictive associations, they may also be interested in relationships. Thirdly, Ojagbemi et al appear interested in the general population, preferably than individuals. The interest of the authors in the examination of predicted relationships between numerical and/ or non-numerical (i.e, categorical) indicators, with a focus on the general population may support a non-experimental quantitative approach (Martens, 1998).In line with the quantitative framework, Ojagbemi et al specifically investigated the predictive relationship between a wide range of demographic and health related variables and three categories of behaviour occurring on a continuum leading to eventual suicide in people who have succeed the age of 65 years or over at the start of the study. They additionally course to investigate the transition between one behaviour and another. These cate gories of behaviour were namely suicidal ideation, suicidal plans, and suicidal attempts. They hypothesized that several of the health and wellbeing indicators will predict the presence of these suicidal behaviours. The study was a lodge based cross-sectional survey of the elderly living in a geographical area equivalent to a quarter of the national population. Giving the research question of Ojagbemi et al about predictive associations, the exploration of several demographic and health related variables should allow the investigators to examine the independent effect of individual variables on the suicidal behaviours while holding the others constant. Furthermore, giving the interest of the authors on sub-Saharan African communities, the focus on communities spread over a wide geographical area, should allow for a wider generalisation of the findings to several sub-Saharan African communities. Conversely, the community based design may inherently exclude the elderly in care and nu rsing homes, as well as hospitals. Therefore, the findings may not be generalizable, after all, to the entire sub-Saharan African elderly population. Also, the cross-sectional design makes the picture of whether the elderly have had these behaviours long before they attained the age of 65 years unclear. As such it may be doubtful if the result represents the consecutive depiction of affairs in the elderly population.On the other hand, the study by Kjiolseth and Ekerberg studied peoples experiences and reactions to the warnings they have received about the suicidal intentions or plans of the elderly around them. They have relied on psychological autopsy, based on several interviews with people the authors thought should have the knowledge and experience about the phenomenon they planned to investigate. Giving the research questions of the authors about how people perceived notices of suicide communicated to them, a re-enactment of the situation environ the eventual suicidal act, th rough information from key informants, may help shed light on peoples experiences and the processes involved in the reaction of individuals. The individual meaning is also referred to as phenomenology in the context of qualitative research (Thompson et al., 1989). However, with individual meanings it may be difficult to demonstrate probabilistic generalisability to the wider group of formal or informal carers of the elderly who have died by suicide. On the other hand, it might be possible to generalise findings with strong internecine validity to similar contexts (Pawson and Tilley, 1997 ).Furthermore, They were also interested in the general population of the elderly living a wide geographical area. In this regard, it is the ideal for the authors to access very elderly person living in the location of interest. However, it may be a near impossibility to attempt to interview every elderly person living in an area equivalent to a quarter of the country. As such, the authors resorte d to a systematic method of taking a representative sample of the population of the elderly in the location of interest. 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