A sheltered Environment
All participants expressed that people who attempt suicide need a
sheltered environment to aid them to heal and recover from their
suicide attempt. They perceived that a sheltered environment
provided protection and security. Thus, it was important that no-one would hurt them while they still felt fragile. Consequently, this category was composed of two sub-categories.
1. A protective environment: In this sub-category, most of the
participants perceived that living in a protective environment
nurtured the healing process following their suicide attempt.
They described a protective environment as one in which there
‘is no stress’ (P1). ‘I need it to be stable ’ (P2). One patient who
had healed from her suicide attempt had this to say:
P1 (Participant 1): When I was so sad and full of anguish, I was
glad I was in the hospital so I could hide myself from the world.
The hospital environment protected me. I could temporarily
escape from my stress and this prevented me re-attempting a
suicide attempt.