title: A community's response to suicide through public art: stakeholder perspectives from the Finding the Light Within project.
abstract: Suicide is a preventable public health problem and a leading cause of death in the United States. Despite recognized need for community-based strategies for suicide prevention, most suicide prevention programs focus on individual-level change. This article presents seven first person accounts of Finding the Light Within, a community mobilization initiative to reduce the stigma associated with suicide through public arts participation that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 2011 through 2012. The stigma associated with suicide is a major challenge to suicide prevention, erecting social barriers to effective prevention and treatment and enhancing risk factors for people struggling with suicidal ideation and recovery after losing a loved one to suicide. This project engaged a large and diverse audience and built a new community around suicide prevention through participatory public art, including community design and production of a large public mural about suicide, storytelling and art workshops, and a storytelling website. We present this project as a model for how arts participation can address suicide on multiple fronts-from raising awareness and reducing stigma, to promoting community recovery, to providing healing for people and communities in need.
authors.affiliation: Division of Prevention and Community Research and The Consultation Center, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 389 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511-2369, USA. nathaniel.mohatt@yale.edu
authors.forename: Nathaniel V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Mohatt
authors.forename: Jonathan B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.forename: Arthur C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Samantha L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Matlin
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Golden
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Siciliano
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kiernan
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pelleritti
authors.forename: Jacob Kraemer
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Tebes
mesh_terms: D001154:Art; D006801:Humans; D015143:Philadelphia; D011634:Public Health; D057545:Social Stigma; D000092864:Suicide Prevention