Social Workers Must Consider Environmental Factors as a Leading Cause of Elder Suicide

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By Paul R. Pace

Death by suicide among the elderly occurs at a higher rate than those of other age cohorts, is more successful, and has the lowest rates of failed attempts, notes Stephen M. Marson, PhD, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Gerontological practitioners need to be aware of what leads to elder suicide, as the victims are unlikely to call attention to the matter themselves before they make an attempt, he said.

Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), a French psychologist, formally established the academic discipline of sociology. Durkheim argued that suicide can be a result not only of psychological or emotional factors but of social factors as well. Marson cites Durkheim’s theory of suicide as the perfect fit for understanding suicidal distress in older adults.

“Clinical social workers place emphasis on the social environment as a persistent variable that stimulates intrapsychic distress,” Marson said. “When psychologists and psychiatrists focus on intrapsychic functions, they are much more likely to discount environmental factors for mental distress. Thus, clinical social workers have a mindset that embraces Durkheim’s position which is unlike that of other types of psychotherapists. Durkheim’s suicide fits like a hand-in-glove for clinical social workers.”

“Durkheim’s suicide” was an environmental explanation for suicide that provided a conceptual framework for the entire population, Marson explained. Embedded within the practice of psychotherapy, there is an over emphasis on intrapsychic distress, he said.

“I hope clinical social workers will carefully consider environmental issues as the first cause of suicidal ideation.”