“Everyone in my immediate family…”: Students’ Experiences with Suicide
Keywords:
Suicide education, student reflection , Suicide content, CurriculumAbstract
Background: Suicide is a prevalent issue that is faced across the life span and has been found to be the third leading cause of death in those aged 10 to 34 years old. As social workers working with clients who have faced suicidal ideation or experienced it in their life. As it stands there is a lack of social work education on suicide in curriculum in BSW and MSW programs.
Methods: The purpose of this qualitative study was to share and explore the familial experiences of students regarding suicide. This study followed a content analysis approach to analyze the 38 reflective papers that came from an elective course in a MSW program.
Results: Our analysis resulted in three new themes, 1. Stories of our Loves Ones, 2. Not Believing in Mental Health Struggles, and 3. How Can We Make it Through This?
Conclusions: These results pointed towards social work educators needing to understand students’ experiences on suicide and how it relates to them seeking out taking these courses. Future BSW and MSW curriculum should be intentional in weaving suicide content in courses to better prepare future clinicians for the field.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Toni A. Gallegos, Dr. Regina T. Praetorius, Zoya Chaturvedi
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