Reluctance to seek professional help among suicidal people: results from the Swiss Health Survey

Objectives To investigate whether help-negation (not accepting or accessing available helping resources) among suicidal people can also be found in a Swiss sample. Methods Data on 16,640 participants (aged 15 and older) from the Swiss Health Survey 2012 was analyzed. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the association between suicidality (categorized into “not at all”; “several days”; and “more than half of the days”) and currently being in treatment for depression (covariates: depression and socio-demographic variables). Results Less than 1/3 of the participants with the highest level of suicidality were currently in treatment (males: 27.0 %; females: 29.6 %). Participants who were experiencing suicidality for several days were more likely to be in treatment relative to non-suicidal people. However, people with the highest level of suicidality did not differ from the other two groups in regard to treatment frequency. Help-negation was particularly pronounced among males and young people (15–24-year olds). Conclusions The reluctance to seek professional help is problematic because treatment might reduce the risk of suicide.