Suicide prevention in sub-Saharan Africa: Cultural considerations and opportunities to advance research and practice

Abstract There is a lack of data to enable context-sensitive and culturally informed suicide prevention strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. This chapter explores contextual and cultural factors which have an important bearing on suicide prevention in sub-Saharan Africa, and describes the opportunities for potential collaboration across the region to advance research and practice of culturally informed suicide prevention. The chapter argues for the establishment of a suicide prevention research network in the region to: establish a reliable suicide surveillance system; explore culturally situated meanings of suicide; identify high-risk groups within populations of migrants and refugees; investigate how traditional healers, religious leaders, and other non-professionals can be included in suicide prevention strategies; examine how processes such as urbanization and contexts such as living in an urban slum increase suicide risk; investigate the links between infectious diseases and suicide; and test culturally informed suicide prevention interventions.