Suicide: issues of prevention, intervention, and facilitation

The practice of suicide prevention directs the suicidal person to continue living despite the presence of a wish to die. In contrast, the concept of suicide intervention attempts to maintain a relatively more neutral position, one that allows for the possibility of death facilitation as well as prevention. The concept of suicide intervention implies the appropriateness of suicide for certain chronically distressed individuals and anticipates the emergence of prodeath intervention as a valid clinical procedure. A proposed suicide intervention model is contrasted with the goals and methods of existing suicide prevention and crisis counseling services. The issues of an appropriate death, premature death, an ambivalent attraction to death, and continued living in the face of chronically low life satisfaction are discussed.