British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, cilt.52, sa.2, ss.164-175, 2024 (SSCI)
Despite the crucial role of mental health professionals in suicide prevention, little is known about mental health professionals’ suicide literacy and attitudes towards suicide in Turkey. Therefore, the aims of this research are twofold: First, we investigated counsellor trainees’ suicide knowledge and stigmatising attitudes. Second, we examined the relationship between suicide literacy and attitudes of counsellor trainees. A total of 344 counsellor trainees were recruited for this study through convenience sampling in Turkey. The descriptive statistics demonstrated that most of the counsellor trainees had a lack of knowledge about causes/nature, risk factors, and signs of suicide. Additionally, the participants had stigmatising attitudes towards individuals who died by suicide. Most importantly, the canonical correlation analysis revealed that the counsellor trainees’ stigmatising attitudes towards individuals who died by suicide were negatively associated with their suicide literacy. The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to design suicide-sensitive counsellor education programs.