Do you have experience of suicidal feelings?
For the next phase of our research we are aiming to connect with LGBTQ+ people, aged 13 and over and based in the UK, who live with suicidal feelings or who have experienced suicidal feelings or attempts in the past. This is because we want to understand how LGBTQ+ people make sense of their own suicidal thoughts.
We want to talk to people from across LGBTQ+ communities – whether you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex or in another way. We are interested in understanding what has contributed to suicidal distress and crisis, whether or not this is related to your sexual or romantic orientation or gender identity. We also want to know what has helped people to cope with suicidal thoughts or feelings, and what might have helped life to feel more liveable for you.
For more information on this study you can download our information sheet here
How you can take part
There are three different ways you can take part, and if you would like to take part in multiple ways you are welcome to. For example, you may want to complete a Story Book to share with a researcher during an interview, or you may wish to upload a page of your Story Book via the Story box.
- Story Book – a booklet that you fill in, and which can be completed anonymously in your own time. You can download it as a PDF, a Word Document, or in brief, plain text format
- Story Box – an online questionnaire, which can also be completed anonymously.
- Interview – this is a confidential one-to-one interview, which can happen either in person or online (you can download information about what to expect here and express your interest in taking part here).
What will I be asked?
All three formats use the same questions, but offer you the opportunity to answer them in a way that feels right for you. The questions we are asking cover the following topics:
- Any background information that you would like to share with our researcher team.
- Your experience of suicidal thoughts, feelings or attempts – and the experiences and environments that contributed to them.
- What helped – or would help – life to feel more liveable.
- What you think good support would look like for LGBTQ+ people experiencing suicidal feelings.
Who can take part?
To take part, you must be:
- An LGBTQ+ person
- With personal experience of suicidal thoughts, feelings or attempts
- Aged over 13
- Living in the UK
We realise that it can be difficult to think about suicidal feelings, so we want to make sure that it is safe for you to take part. To help you to consider whether this is the right project for you, please see this webpage: Is This Right For Me?
Story Book
The Story Book provides an opportunity to share your story either in paper or digital format and can be completed in your own time, without you having to speak to a researcher. Whatever you share with us will be confidential, and we will, to the best of our ability, anonymise anything you share with us before we analyse and write it up.
You can download the Story Book as a PDF, or as a Word Document, or in a brief, plain text format.
If you would like us to send you a paper copy please contact us at RainWithinTheRainbow@ed.ac.uk and if you would like to return a paper copy of the Story Book to us, please address it to: Hazel Marzetti – the Rain Within the Rainbow, School of Health in Social Sciences, Doorway 1, Old Medical School, Elsie Inglis Quadrangle, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG.
Story Box
The Story Box is an online survey that allows you to share your experiences of suicidal feelings with us. Use of the Story Box is entirely anonymous, and can be done without speaking to anyone. You write your answers, make voice recordings, as well as upload photos and drawings.
To take part please go to this webpage: Story Box.
Interviews
The interviews take the form of a chat with one of our researchers (either Hazel Marzetti or Mark Sladen – you can find out more about what to expect here and more about us here). Before the interview we will ask you to fill in a short questionnaire, and then to have an introductory phone or video call to get to know each other.
We want to make the interviews as comfortable and accessible as possible, so in this call we can discuss anything that might help with this. In-person interviews will be held in a private room in a venue such as a library college or community centre, whereas online interviews will be conducted via Zoom or Teams.
Interviews will be audio recorded, and we will ask your consent to use what we record, but any information that you share with us will be anonymised to ensure your confidentiality.
To take part in an interview please fill out our short questionnaire.
Further information
For more information about taking part please see our Information Sheet, or contact us at RainWithinTheRainbow@ed.ac.uk
