A Comparison Between `Samaritan Suicides' and Living Samaritan Clients

¹ Clinical Psychiatry Unit, Graylingwell Hospital, Chichester, Sussex
² Department of Sociology, University of Southampton, SO9 5NH

Forty-five suicides, formerly Samaritan clients, have been compared with a control group of 90 living Samaritan clients. The suicides were older, more frequently male, had disrupted marriages, were living alone or in hotels, had more histories of previous psychiatric treatment and attempted suicide, and presented more often with psychological as opposed to practical problems. Measures of the treatment received and the characteristics of Samaritan counsellors were the same for suicides and controls.

The best discriminating measures between the two groups were the presence at the time of self-referral of a previous history of psychiatric treatment, and being in contact with other agencies. Nearly half the control group had neither of these characteristics compared with only one of the 45 suicides. These findings are of practical value in assessing firstly the Samaritan client who is a high risk for suicides and secondly the client who is a low risk.