Rory C. O'Connor

Stephen Platt

Jacki Gordon

The International Handbook of Suicide Prevention showcases the latest cutting-edge research from the world’s leading authorities, and highlights policy and practice implications for the prevention of suicide. Brings together the world’s leading authorities on suicidal behaviour, renowned for their suicide prevention research, policy and practice Addresses the key questions of why people attempt suicide, the best interventions, treatments and care for those at risk, and the key international challenges in trying to prevent suicide Describes up-to-date, theoretically-derived and evidence-based research and practice from across the globe, which will have implications across countries, cultures and the lifespan

Research, Policy and Practice

International Handbook of Suicide Prevention

Jonathan Watson

Providing a critical review of the current state of health promotion research. This book re-conceptualises the field of health promotion as collaborative and integrating enterprise, rather than as a battlefield for disciplinary and intellectual clashes. It makes a significant contribution to ongoing epistemological, theoretical and methodological debates in health promotion research. With contributors from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, the UK and the US, Researching Health Promotion will be of interest to students and professionals working in health promotion, public health, medicine and health policy.

Researching Health Promotion

Gareth Williams

Sue Scott

Hilary Thomas

Private Risk and Public Dangers is comprised of a collection of chapters which were originally papers presented in the 1991 British Sociological Association Conference on Health and Society, and they address a range of private risks and public dangers. Issues covered vary from the response to HIV and AIDS and ‘foetal alcohol syndrome’ to the nature of accidents. These seemingly diverse social situations within which emerges is that we need a more sociologically informed understanding of the personal shading the public dangers they are expected to manage.

Private Risks and Public Dangers

I went to Kyrgyzstan to investigate using remote sensing to map hazards. We ran a scenario planning game in Bishkek with Emergency personnel from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Our host takes us to a night club. It’s in a vast concert bunker. We toast each other unmercifully with vodka shots until encouraged onto the dance floor where we dance with a group of attractive young girls they call the ‘jet-set’. We went for a walk in the snow covered Tien Shan and walked up the Ala Acha gorge. We wanted to see snow leopard, but all we saw were the inquisitive marmots and circling eagles. Having forgotten my trainers I had only sandals to keep my feet warm. Bishkek is a city on the ancient ‘silk-road’ and there is a relaxed human feel to the place, with its tree-lined boulevards, Soviet ‘brave new world’ architecture and a huge statue of Lenin pointing towards a future long gone

Kyrgyzstan Bishkek and Tien Shan

We went to Guatemala to visit David, a friend I hadn't seen for more than twenty-five years since I lived in Venezuela. We stay with his delightful family, a house full of delightful women. We go to Chichicastenango on market day and witness the strangely pagan firework procession from the church; we take a cruise around Lake Atitlan and stop off in the villages around its shores. We fly to Tikal, climb pyramids and hear about the end of the world. And David takes us up the active volcano of Pacaya where we brave poisonous sulphur clouds and risk being bombarded with tephra bombs that David says land with a splat like red-hot cow pats. But the most amazing part of our trip, something we hadn't bargained for, is that David reveals he was for over thirty years 'Our man in Central America'.

Stephen Platt

Books

Your next favorite book is out there