Epistemic Justice and the Struggle for Critical Suicide Literacy

ABSTRACT

The concept of suicide literacy is currently used to describe a perceived deficit in public knowledge about suicide that is directly related to specific health actions and outcomes. It thereby fulfils an important function in determining the way health education and communication are constructed as a problem in suicide prevention policy and practice. In this work, I examine the incongruities produced by operationalisation of the concept of suicide literacy and the way it preserves structural inequities in epistemic practice. Drawing on the concept of epistemic injustice, I contend that the routine social and material practices of suicide prevention education and communication aimed at advancing suicide literacy restrict certain testimonial and hermeneutical activities, resulting in the silencing of alternative interpretations and expressions of suicide. Because these practices prevent critical thinking, help maintain professional privilege and hide complicity with potentially harmful practices they are ethically and politically significant. The uptake of wide-ranging epistemic contributions must be paramount in order to connect multiple perspectives and build knowledge. In order to create a more democratic approach to suicide prevention education and communication that cultivates critical dialogue and promotes social and political agency and change, new ways of thinking about suicide literacy are required.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicide
• health literacy
• epistemic justice
• health education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott J. Fitzpatrick

Scott J. Fitzpatrick is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health at The University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on the philosophical, moral, and socio-cultural frameworks that underpin suicide and suicide prevention including research, clinical, and public health policy and practice.