Citation

Oliffe JL, Broom A, Popa M, Jenkins EK, Rice SM, Ferlatte O, Rossnagel E. Qual. Health Res. 2019; 29(3): 315-327.

Affiliation

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1049732318800003

PMID

30222044

Abstract

Social isolation has featured as a significant and oftentimes all-encompassing risk factor for male suicide, yet, as an explanatory mechanism, it has not been unpacked in terms of what it constitutes in everyday life. The current photovoice study explores the various dimensions of the lived experience of social isolation, as embedded in accounts of suicidality drawn from 35 Canadian men. Study participants narrated the following factors as underpinning their social isolation: (a) family dysfunction and estrangement, (b) marginality and feeling like misfits at school and work, (c) alienation and provisional acceptance of health care, (d) ineffectual and self-harming management, (e) intrusive dislocating thoughts, and (f) society's burdensome and immoral subjects. These interwoven but discrete spheres provide a means for understanding the phenomenology of social isolation and a basis for melding ideas about connectedness, relationality, personal history, and care, along with strategies to support and reduce men's suicidality.

Language: en

Keywords

Canada; masculinity; men’s health; photography/photovoice; qualitative; self-harm; stigma; suicide