Diego De Leo

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Diego De Leo (born 1951) is an Italian professor, doctor and psychiatrist. Until August 2015, he was the director of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP), World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Research and Training in Suicide Prevention at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. [1] [2] He has been on the editorial board of Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention since 1990, was its Editor-in-Chief from 2008 to early 2018 (sharing with Annette Beautrais until 2010), and is now Editor emeritus of the journal. [3] He is frequently quoted in Australian news reports as an expert on suicide prevention. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

De Leo received a degree in medicine and Surgery at the University of Padua in 1977, and then a diploma in psychiatry, also at Padua. In 1981 he studied behavioural sciences at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. During this time a close colleague took his own life; this led De Leo to pursue suicide as a research topic. He focused his research on suicides in the elderly, and completed his doctorate in 1988. His dissertation, entitled Sunset Depression, was developed into a book on self-destructive behaviour in the elderly, Depression and Suicide in Late Life.

Career

After graduation, De Leo developed TeleHelp, or TeleCheck, the first system in Italy to provide medical and psycho-social assistance to frail elderly people living at home. [5] He also helped start the Italian Association for Suicide Prevention, and an Italian registry for suicidal behaviours. He initiated and led the Psychogeriatric Service at the University of Padua in 1986 and a suicide research unit in 1992.

World Health Organization

De Leo presented findings from his dissertation on Sunset Depression to members of the World Health Organization in Geneva, and in 1991 was asked to organize a meeting in Padua, Italy, on the future of mental health in the world. He continued to work with WHO, researching a number of topics from depression and stress-related conditions, and participating in international committees and task forces on the quality of suicide mortality data.

In collaboration with WHO Headquarters and the European Office he studied quality of life, particularly in the elderly. With David Jenkins, he created PEQOL, an evaluation package for quality of life in old age, and then with Jouko Lonnqvist, Rene Diekstra and Marco Trabucchi the LEIPAD. In 1995 he co-chaired WHOQOL, a project to develop an instrument for measuring health related quality of life.

De Leo was a member of the WHO/EURO Multi-Centre Study on Suicidal Behaviour from 1988 to 2001, and directed the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention at the University of Padua from 1997 to 2002.

In 2001, De Leo initiated the WHO/SUPRE-MISS study, which collated data from China, Iran, Vietnam, Brazil, South Africa, Estonia, India and Sri Lanka and demonstrated the importance of continuity of care in reducing suicide mortality. During his time as President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, De Leo initiated World Suicide Prevention Day celebrated on 10 September every year since 2003. [6]

In 2006 De Leo directed the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, as well as the newly established WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention at Griffith University. [7] In the same year, he helped launch, with the Western Pacific Office of the WHO, the Suicide Trends in At-Risk Territories study, which involved 22 countries.

De Leo co-wrote a chapter on self-directed violence in the 2002 World Report on Violence and Health. He drafted the Blue Booklet Series of WHO guidelines to media professionals, about recording of suicide data and registering of non-fatal suicidal behavior, and contributed to the suicide module of the WHO mhGAP program.

Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention

De Leo became director of the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention at Griffith University in 1998. [2] In 2001 De Leo organised a post-graduate education program in Suicide Prevention Studies, and in 2002 AISRAP became an accredited agency for the delivery of suicide prevention training. In 2004, De Leo opened a research outpatient service, the Life Promotion Clinic, for suicidal patients, which specialised in psychological treatments and operated as a Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists agency, training psychiatry students.

Other research activities

De Leo set up in Italy the De Leo Fund Onlus, a scientific NGO that provides assistance and care to those who are bereaved by traumatic deaths and manages a national telephone helpline for people traumatized by sudden losses. He has endowed an award in remembrance of his children, which is presented biannually by The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) to distinguished scholars of suicidal behaviours carried out in developing countries.

De Leo is the coordinator of the Andrej Marusic Institute, centre for suicide research at the University of Primorska, Slovenia. He is affiliated with the Department of Community Medicine at the West Virginia University, a member of the Special Consortium on Suicide Prevention for the American Army, and an Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Queensland. He is a member of the Australian Suicide Prevention Advisory Council and the Queensland Advisory Group on Suicide (QAGS). He is co-founder of the Italian Society for PsychoOncology.

Publications

De Leo is the author of scientific articles and books. His most recent volumes are Turning Points (2011), and Bereavement after Traumatic Deaths (2013). He is the founder and previous Editor-in-Chief of the Italian Journal of Suicidology, previous Editor-in-Chief of Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, Editor-in-Chief of the Open Journal of Medical Psychology and editor of Suicide Research: Selected Readings.

Awards and honors

Family life

De Leo is married to Cristina Trevisan, an interior decorator and modern art expert. They had two sons, both killed in a road accident in Italy in 2005.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copycat suicide</span> Emulation of another suicide

A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. The publicized suicide serves as a trigger, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide by a susceptible or suggestible person. This is referred to as suicide contagion.

A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers. The first such service was founded in England in 1951 and such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the English speaking world at least since the mid-1970s. Initially set up to help those contemplating suicide, many have expanded their mandate to deal more generally with emotional crises. Similar hotlines operate to help people in other circumstances, including rape, bullying, self-harm, runaway children, human trafficking, and people who identify as LGBT or intersex. Despite crisis hotlines being common, their effectiveness in reducing suicides is not clear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicide prevention</span> Collective efforts to reduce the incidence of suicide

Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health problem that can have long-lasting effects on individuals, families, and communities. Preventing suicide requires strategies at all levels of society. This includes prevention and protective strategies for individuals, families, and communities. Suicide can be prevented by learning the warning signs, promoting prevention and resilience, and committing to social change.

Suicide intervention is a direct effort to prevent a person or persons from attempting to take their own life or lives intentionally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicidology</span> Scientific study of suicide and self-destructive behaviors

Suicidology is the scientific study of suicidal behaviour, the causes of suicidalness and suicide prevention. Every year, about one million people die by suicide, which is a mortality rate of sixteen per 100,000 or one death every forty seconds. Suicidologists believe that suicide is largely preventable with the right actions, knowledge about suicide, and a change in society's view of suicide to make it more acceptable to talk about suicide. There are many different fields and disciplines involved with suicidology, the two primary ones being psychology and sociology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin S. Shneidman</span>

Edwin S. Shneidman was an American clinical psychologist, suicidologist and thanatologist. Together with Norman Farberow and Robert Litman, in 1958, he founded the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center where the men were instrumental in researching suicide and developing a crisis center and treatments to prevent deaths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicide</span> Intentional act of causing ones own death

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse are risk factors. Some suicides are impulsive acts due to stress, relationship problems, or harassment and bullying. Those who have previously attempted suicide are at a higher risk for future attempts. Effective suicide prevention efforts include limiting access to methods of suicide such as firearms, drugs, and poisons; treating mental disorders and substance abuse; careful media reporting about suicide; improving economic conditions; and dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). Although crisis hotlines are common resources, their effectiveness has not been well studied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Farberow</span> American psychologist

Norman Louis Farberow was an American psychologist, and one of the founding fathers of modern suicidology. He was among the three founders in 1958 of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, which became a base of research into the causes and prevention of suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Association of Suicidology</span> American nonprofit organization

The American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which advocates for suicide prevention. It was established in 1968 by Edwin S. Shneidman, who has been called "a pioneer in suicide prevention." Its official journal is Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, published six times a year by Wiley-Blackwell.

The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) is an international suicide prevention organization dedicated to preventing suicide and suicidal behaviour and to alleviating its effects. IASP leads the global role in suicide prevention by strategically developing an effective forum that is proactive in creating strong collaborative partnerships and promoting evidence-based action in order to reduce the incidence of suicide. The organisation is guided by a constitution and a 5-year strategy. Founded by Erwin Ringel and Norman Farberow in 1960, IASP provides a forum for mental health professionals, crisis workers, suicide survivors and all those affected by suicide and suicidal behaviour. As a membership-based organisation, IASP’s reach currently extends to about eighty countries worldwide.

World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is an awareness day always observed on 10 September every year, in order to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides, with various activities around the world since 2003. The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) to host World Suicide Prevention Day. In 2011 an estimated 40 countries held awareness events to mark the occasion. According to WHO's Mental Health Atlas released in 2014, no low-income country reported having a national suicide prevention strategy, while less than 10% of lower-middle income countries, and almost a third of upper-middle and high-income countries had.

A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to kill themselves but survives. Mental health professionals discourage describing suicide attempts as "failed" or "unsuccessful", as doing so may imply that a suicide resulting in death is a successful or desirable outcome.

The Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP) is a national and international suicide prevention research centre located at Griffith University in Mt. Gravatt, Queensland. According to its website, the institute is "dedicated to advancing research and learning in the field of suicide prevention" and provides training for health professionals as well as master's degrees in suicidology. The institute also manages a research facility providing outpatient treatment for people with suicidal ideation and/or recent history of suicidal behaviour.

Historically, suicide terminology has been rife with issues of nomenclature, connotation, and outcomes, and terminology describing suicide has often been defined differently depending on the purpose of the definition. A lack of agreed-upon nomenclature and operational definitions has complicated understanding. In 2007, attempts were made to reach some consensus. There is also opposition to the phrase "to commit suicide" as implying negative moral judgment and association with criminal or sinful activity.

Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering suicidology, the study of suicide. It was established in 1980 and is published by Hogrefe Publishing under the auspices of the International Association for Suicide Prevention. The editor-in-chief is Diego De Leo. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 1.482.

Antoon A. Leenaars is a Canadian clinical and forensic psychologist practicing in Windsor, Ontario. He is known for his research on suicide.

Alan Lee Berman also known as Lanny Berman, is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and suicidologist. He is an adjunct professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Berman was formerly the executive director of the American Association of Suicidology. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the International Association for Suicide Research. Berman has a private practice in psychological and forensic consultation.

Danuta Elizabeth Wasserman is a professor of psychiatry and suicidology at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. She is a public mental health and medical educator. She is currently the President of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA).

Madelyn Gould is the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons’ is the Irving Philips Professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry and a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She is also an epidemiologist with a focus on youth suicide.

David A. Jobes is an American clinical psychologist. He is currently serving as a Professor of Psychology, Director of the Suicide Prevention Laboratory, and Associate Director of Clinical Training at The Catholic University of America. His areas of focus are on Clinical psychology, Suicide prevention, Clinical Suicidology, Ethics and Risk Management, and clinical risk assessment. In August 2022, he was awarded the Alfred Wellner Award for Lifetime Achievement by The National Register of Health Service Psychologists.

References

  1. ↑ "Plans for Australian-first suicidal care facility at Griffith University Mt Gravatt campus supported by family of Sophia Martelli". Brisbane North News, Shannon Sagaidak, February 10, 2014
  2. 1 2 "Griffith Health legend honoured". Postvention Australia, on August 18, 2015 by Jamy Somerville
  3. ↑ "Passing the Baton". "Leo, D. D., & Pirkis, J. (2018). Crisis, 39(1), 1-3. doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000530"
  4. ↑ "Expert says bullying often a factor in youth suicide, a situation amplified since social media became popular". Stephanie Masters, Albert & Logan News, May 04, 2013
  5. ↑ J. Mark G. Williams; Mark Williams (2002). Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Understanding the Cry of Pain. Mark Williams. pp. 176–. ISBN   978-0-14-100561-4.
  6. ↑ "Brisbane’s Story Bridge: a tale of tragedy for far too long". Andrew Mcmillen, The Australian, September 5, 2015.
  7. ↑ "WHO report maps global suicide problem for the first time". The Conversation, September 4, 2014
  8. ↑ "Former top cop and indigenous activist nab Australia Day honours ". Brisbane Times, January 26, 2013. Barclay White
  9. ↑ "Australia Day 2013 Honours List". Sydney Morning Herald, January 25, 2013
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