Suicide is the one of the most common causes of death for people in Sweden. The suicide prevention operations in the region that is investigated in this study is led by the fire and rescue services. Few empirical studies have examined management of suicide prevention operations of fire and rescue services. Therefore, to fill a gap in research resources, this research project presents principles and practices of the suicide prevention operations of the fire and rescue services. A better understanding of this problem has the potential to contribute to the development of suicide prevention planning and responses.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how fire and rescue services manage suicide prevention operations. In ethnographic fieldwork in the fire and rescue service between 2019-2024 observations and interviews are conducted with fire and rescue professionals.

The preliminary findings in the first part of the study 2019-2020 demonstrate that the management of suicide prevention operations include five parts: (1) a shared suicide emergency plan for the emergency services (police, fire, ambulance services), (2) a municipality action plan supported by the Law of protection against accidents, (3) interprofessional work groups focused on suicide prevention and crisis support, (4) proactive work educating and training fire and rescue professionals and the public in mental health first aid and suicide prevention, (5) suicide emergency response efforts, and (6) crisis preparedness and crisis support.

Founders: The Public Health Agency of Sweden (2019-2020) and Jönköping University.

Project duration: 2019-2024

Project member: Karl Hedman.