What is suicide prevention? A critical conceptualisation between theory and practice in UK LGBTQ+ suicide prevention

Although globally it is acknowledged that LGBTQ+ communities face disproportionately high rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts when compared to their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts, less is known about the suicide prevention needs of LGBTQ+ people. In response, UK suicide prevention policies have suggested there needs to be tailored, prioritised and culturally appropriate methods of prevention employed. However, what these should, or even could, look like has been left undefined and unguided, leaving it up to individual practitioners and healthcare providers to decide how such tailoring could be attempted. The research question what is suicide prevention therefore sits at the intersection of theoretical and practice-based inquiry; it is this intersection this article attempts to address. To undertake this conceptual exploration, I reflect on 37 informal conversations undertaken with practitioners and facilitators working in suicide prevention with LGBTQ+ people. Through these critical reflections I explore the pathologising problematics and productive potentialities of expanding conceptualisations of suicide and suicide prevention beyond more clinical constructions, responding to the contributions of homo-, bi- and transphobia to LGBTQ+ suicide. In doing so, I pay particular attention to the role of ‘crisis’ in deciding whether suicide is constructed as a ‘community’ or a ‘clinical’ issue. Ultimately, I argue that the discomforting tension between the problematic and the productive potential of expanding our conceptualisation of suicide and suicide prevention may offer us fertile space to not only consider what LGBTQ+ suicide prevention is, but what all suicide prevention could be.