Attitudes towards suicide among regional politicians in Lithuania, Austria, Hungary, Norway and Sweden

The aim of this study was to compare attitudes towards suicide among regional politicians in fiveEuropean countries, namely Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. Attitudes of politicians areimportant as they are key persons in a suicide prevention context. All these countries differ significantly withrespect to suicide rates and suicide prevention strategies. Previous research has shown that more permissiveattitudes towards suicide are prevalent in countries with higher rates of suicide. Thus, we would expect thatregional politicians in these countries would hold rather different attitudes towards suicide. The AttitudesTowards Suicide questionnaire (ATTS) was employed in the study. The results indicated that the acceptance ofsuicide was higher among Lithuanian, Hungarian and Austrian politicians (high suicide rate, no nationalprevention strategies), than among Norwegian and Swedish politicians (relatively low suicide rates, nationalprevention strategies). The same split in attitudes between low and high suicide rate areas was found concerningpreparedness to help a person in a suicidal crisis. The only significant difference between male and femalepoliticians was found with respect to perceived preventability of suicide, with male politicians being slightlymore optimistic than female politicians. Overall, the results of our study show that differences among countriesin suicide rates and suicide prevention policies are reflected in attitudes of politicians.