Research snapshot

Suicide notes provide insight into the way people experience mental illness and mental health treatment. An in-depth review of 36 suicide notes from Ontario emphasizes the importance of personal control over mental illness, the struggle between the illness and the self, and how experiences with treatment can lead to hopelessness. Service providers can use these findings to help their clients reduce exhaustion and increase autonomy, or improve suicide prevention programs.

Many studies have shown that raising alcohol taxes or prices reduced alcohol-related harms such as violence, crimes, vehicle crashes, chronic diseases, transmission of STDs, and suicide. Decreasing hours of sale or decreasing availability of alcohol resulted in less consumption of alcohol and a significant decrease in alcohol-related harms.

This Research Snapshot is based on their article, “Under the influence: examination of prevalence and correlates of alcohol and marijuana consumption in relation to youth driving and passenger behaviours in Canada. A cross-sectional study.”