Mainstreaming black churches into suicide prevention among adolescents: a literature review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that black churches in the USA are best suited to curtail the rising incidence of suicide, and suicide ideation among African-American adolescents. Presently, little is known about the best preventive practices and mental healthcare interventions for the black adolescents assailed by suicide and suicidal ideation. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the extant literature was conducted to understand and synthesize the current knowledge base about suicide rates among African-American adolescents. To retrieve and review relevant literature that focussed on suicide among African-American adolescents and the preventive roles of black churches the authors searched the following databases: PsychINFO, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Social Work abstracts, and Google Scholar. Findings – Findings indicate that black churches could implement, and profusely replicate the lay health advisors and HAVEN models to successfully mitigate the rate of suicide among black adolescents. In addition it was found that the gatekeeper suicide prevention program model also holds promise for suicide prevention among black adolescents in black churches. Research limitations/implications – The result of this research synthesize is limited to African-American adolescents and may not be generalizable to other minority adolescents’ experiencing suicidal challenges. Furthermore, future research should utilize qualitative research methodologies to document lived experiences of African-American adolescents who are survivors of suicide attempts with a view to preventing suicide and suicidal ideation among black adolescents. Originality/value – Healthcare professionals, and policy makers, are provided a panoramic view of culturally competent and spiritually sensitive prevention interventions within black churches that are most appropriate for reducing suicide rates among minority black adolescents.