Perceptions of Occupational Medicine Specialists on Suicide Prevention in the Workplace

Suicide rates have taken on alarming dimensions with catastrophic consequences. This study aims to understand the perceptions of occupational medicine specialists about suicide prevention and describe what actions work organizations are taking to prevent suicide among their workers. This is an exploratory, cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative study, carried out with 24 occupational medicine specialists with experience in workers’ mental health, using online forms. The analyses were performed using Excel and SPSS software. In the results, the indicators that most appeared among specialists as prevalent in the development of controls for suicide risk were: (1) to control the reasons for social security leaves (n = 23, 95.8%); (2) to train leaders for people management (n = 23, 95.8%); and (3) to have an official means of communication within the company to report violence at work (n = 20, 83.3%). There were 42 recommendations described by the specialists. They were grouped into 8 categories and are part of 4 different dimensions of suicide prevention. Suicide is a complex phenomenon of multifactorial nature, which involves all the dimensions of life and influences the people close to it directly and indirectly. Therefore, there is no single way to approach this issue in work organizations, nor a single way to promote prevention, given the fact that the practical experiences of the physicians expand the approach of health services.