Representation of death and attitude to suicide in the elderly. Considerations on prevention

Suicide in the elderly has reached considerable proportions and is already contemplated in the WHO policies addressing the promotion of health prevention. By focusing the investigation on the psychosocial variable related to the living setting (in one's own home [OH] or in a rest home [RH]) and on the relationship between representations of death and attitude to suicide in the elderly, this research presents the results of a study carried out in Lombardy on 120 OH and 115 RH residents. The work was done through a) the Reasons for Living Inventory [RFL] by Marsha Linehan (1983) as regards the issue of suicide; b) content analysis [ACL] by means of the SPAD-T computerised system on answers to two open questions on representations of death; c) comparison of the RFL results within the ACL. Results show that RH residents need interventions which increase all the protection factors revealed by the RFL, and, in particular, strengthen their coping abilities so they can continue to give a positive value to life.