Warriors in the Community is a radio segment that features short, insightful interviews with key figures from Wayne State University about the many ways in which the university and its programs make a positive impact on the metro area and on the lives of Detroiters.
In this episode, we chat with WSU assistant professor Athena Kheibari, a faculty member at the Wayne State University School of Social Work who delves into the controversy over online forums focused on suicide and whether they pose more harm than provide help. Kheibari is widely regarded as an expert on issues related to suicide. Her dissertation, “Suicide Attitudes and Terror Management Theory,” combined experimental and survey research methods to test the mortality salience hypothesis on reactions to suicide and explore the psychological underpinnings of stigma toward persons who attempt or die by suicide.
Announcer: This is Warriors in the Community, brought to you by Wayne State University. And now to learn about how Wayne State is positively impacting our communities, here's Darrell Dawsey.
Darrell Dawsey: Today's guest is Athena Kheibari, Ph.D. She's an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, and she's working on a project to understand stigma toward pro-choice suicide forms and its users.
Tell us a little bit about why you decided to choose this area of study.
Athena Kheibari: There are multiple reasons. Everything from personal experience with suicide, engaging with online communities to seek support. Once I stumbled upon forums such as Pro Choice Suicide, to learn that these exist, it really caught my attention.
Darrell Dawsey: And they exist in some pretty prominent places, am I right?
Athena Kheibari: Yeah, so all the topics talked about on a forum like this are from the perspective of those who either find that there should be choice in people taking their own lives, or they themselves are suicidal. So they seek information on methods, but also for social support.
Darrell Dawsey: Now, you got a lot of folks who say these things should not be out there. Where do you come down on this?
Athena Kheibari: I understand the fear. Some of it, I think, is harmful — but some of it is something that we as individuals who aren't suicidal don't understand. Instead of thinking about how can I block and stop these thoughts, let's think about what ways can we better understand these individuals.
Darrell Dawsey: Is there an anecdote that you can share with us that maybe helps illustrate the importance of studying this issue?
Athena Kheibari: I had presented some findings from a study that I had done. And I got contacted by a parent group who were trying to go for legislation to have these sites be censored. And so they were very passionate about making some policy change. And at the same time, I was seeing that the people on the forum had found my study too. And then they were interacting with it. And some of them had some positive responses like, I'm glad that people are taking interest. So just trying to understand what's going on in this forum led to two different groups.
Announcer: This has been Warriors in the Community. For more Wayne State news, please visit us online at today.wayne.edu/wwj and join us here next Monday at the same time for more Warriors in the Community.