Muhammad Kamruzzaman Mozumder

Monash University Sunway Campus, Malaysia. Email: mkmoz1@student.monash.edu

Umme Habiba Jasmine

Psychologist II, Scottish Livingstone Hospital, Botswana. E-mail: uhjasm@gmail.com

Md. Ashikul Haque

Health Officer (Clinical psychologist II), Mahalapye District Hospital] Email: ashikhq@yahoo.com

Shamsul Haque
Monash University Sunway Campus, Malaysia. Email: shamsul@med.monash.edu.my

The present study explores the suicidal risk among the homosexual individuals in Bangladesh who had previous self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt history This study considered male homosexual as male in a practice of having sex with male Hopelessness is defined by Beck et al. (1979) as negative expectations of future, where a hopeless individual expects or believes that nothing will turn out right for him, nothing he does will succeed, his important goals are unattainable and his worst problem will never be solved (Minkoff et al., 1973, p. 455) Suicidal ideation in particular refers to any self-identified consideration of suicide, making it more common than clinical disorders such as depression and anxiety (Lewis, 2009) Research found that lesbians were more likely to have suicide attempt history (Lhomond & Saurel-Cubizolles, 2006; Hughes et al., 2004; Matthews et al., 2002; Bontempo & DAugelli, 2002) than heterosexual females.

In clinical populations Hopelessness has been found to predict completed suicides (Beck et al., 1989, 1990; Fawcett et al., 1990), suicide attempts (Wetzel et al., 1980; Petrie et al., 1988; Salter and Platt, 1990), suicidal intent (Minkoff et al., 1973; Dyer and Kreitman, 1984) and suicidal ideation (Ranieri et al., 1987; Beck et al., 1993; Steer et al., 1993). The gay-heterosexual disparities in prevalence rates of suicide ideation and attempts are markedly higher than those for other mental health indicators (18-30% in hetero sexual men and 40-55% in gay) The British Columbia study disaggregates data for gay and bisexual youth and found that suicidal ideation is in a relatively low prevalence for gay males (10%) and a higher prevalence for bisexual males (38%).

Methodology

Incidental sampling from an NGO which works with male homosexual community in Bangladesh Total sample size: 102 Sex: Male
Sample Characteristics: Homosexual: 41, Bisexual: 61 This group is, in one sense, homogenous in terms of common homosexual experiences though some of them practice pure homosexual life and some of them are practicing bisexuality, possibly in social ground to cope with social acceptance.

Suicidal Attempt History

Yes Suicidal Risk Yes No Total

No 18.6% (f=19) 2 = 4.34, P< .046

15.7% (f=16)

16.7% (f=17) 49% (f=50) 32.4% (f=33) 67.6% (f=69)

Mental Health service needed to 15.7% cases who are indicated to have definite suicidal risk among those of having suicidal attempt history BHS was able to identify about 49% (16/33*100%= 48.48%) of 33 suicide attempters as at risk of suicide. BHS also identified about 28% (19/69*100%= 27.54%) as at risk of suicide among those who never attempted suicide.

BHS (Beck Hopelessness Scale) suicide Risk Vs. Suicidal Ideation History
60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00%
27.50% 19.60%

38.20%
14.70% Definite Suicidal Risk No Suicidal Risk

History of suicidal History NO suicidal Ideation Ideation

2 = 4.34, P< .046

Mental Health service needed to 19.6% of cases who are indicated to have definite suicidal risk among those of having suicidal ideation history

60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% Self-harm history

27.50% 12.70%

40.20% 19.60% Suicidal Ideation NO suicidal Ideation NO self-harm history

2 = 12.4, P< .001

Mental Health service needed to 47.1% cases having suicidal ideation and 40.2% cases having self-harm.

Suicidal Ideation vs. Suicidal Attempt History

60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 50%

29.40%
17.60% 2.90%

Suicidal ideation
NO suicidal ideation

2 = 37.65, P<.000

Mental health service needed to 29.4% of cases among those of having suicidal attempt history who are still suicidal

History of suicidal attempt

NO history of suicidal attempt

Level of Hopelessness among the homosexual sample

40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 32.40% 33.30% 25.50% 8.80%

BHS Scoring Key

Hopelessness Level None or Minimal Mild Moderate Severe BHS Score 0-3 4-8 9-14 15+

Concluding Comments

The grand findings over the Male Homosexual population of Bangladesh is that
40.2% have self harm history 47.1% have suicidal ideation history (planned suicidal thought) 32.4% have suicidal attempt history 34.3% is in definite suicide risk indicated by BHS (using 9 as cut-off point) This population need planned/ organized mental health service Limitation is--- pure ai 2 gr e mental health support er chahida vary korse kina and as a gr whether they belong to 2 different population eta onujayi determine kore future study hote pare. Bangladesher context e mental health chahida assess e first study.