Tentativas de suicídio e internação: o que pensam os jovens?

Abstract

The goal of this article is to comprehend the reasons leading young adults to attempt suicide and their experiences during a mental health treatment in a hospital in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Interviews were conducted following a semi-structured script about the life’s history thematic perspective in two moments: during the hospitalization or until a week after the hospital discharge, and in the third month after the end of the hospitalization. The material was treated starting with the literal transcription, following the procedures of textualization and transcreation of the interview, and by a thematic analysis of the interviews’ content referring to two analysis fronts: (1) context and reasons of the suicide attempt and (2) experience of the hospitalization from the patients’ perspective. The patients were 17, 22 and 24 years old, and had attempted one or two times to commit suicide. The attempt in which came before the hospitalization occurred in a moment of high pressure, driven by various factors, with the medication available in their home in the moment without any previous planning. According to the patients, the hospitalization in a general hospital can be both a protection and a special care resource after a suicide attempt, and a suffocating environment in which insufficiently helps in the care. According to the literature, the support network of the young adults is a prevention factor against suicide attempts, in which in these cases is reduced, being one of the main points whereupon the psychosocial attention system should interfere in order to strengthen and enlarge.