The Cry for Help [antikvár]

Foreword Each year approximately eighteen thousand persons in the United States commit suicide. Each year one person in every ten thousand of our population carries out an irrevocable and awful decision to cease to live. Suicide is a major mental health problem in our country, as it is in most of the civilized nations of the world. It is an affliction that robs us of some of the most productive members of our community. It is a form of mental illness that is most disturbing to contemplate, a mental illness in which the anguish and terror of the victim lead him to prefer death to his suffering. The most promising approach to the problem of suicide, in fact the only practical approach, is prevention. As we learn to recognize the danger signals of impending suicide, and as we marshal our medical and social resources to help the potential suicide, we can begin to make substantial progress in coping with this distressing problem. The work of the Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles has been most promising in this respect. In cooperation with mental health and other agencies in the community, the Center has had signal success in treating the suicidal patient. It has also carried out important basic research which hopefully will improve our ability to deal with the problem of suicide. The title of this volume, The Cry for Help, symbolizes the work of the interdisciplinary team of therapists and researchers at the Suicide Prevention Center. They have listened to the cry for help, and they have searched for new ways to provide the needed help. The results of their clinical and research activities, as reported in this volume, will, I hope, stimulate other communities to establish suicide prevention facilities and encourage further basic work in this most important mental health problem area. Robert H. Felix, M.D. President, American Psychiatric Association Director, National Institute of Mental Health U.S. Public Health Service ix