Estudo do fenômeno suicídio e suas variáveis em ambiente militar das forças armadas na região sul do Brasil.

Abstract

In Brazil, 32 people die every day, victims of suicide. The State of Rio Grande do Sul has the highest national rates, with 10 cases for every 100 thousand inhabitants. These appalling indices affect a wide range of institutions, including the Armed Forces. It is observed that the approach to this theme still tends to be more limited in Armed Forces units. In the case of these soldiers, there is a need for greater attention to the prevention of this practice: in addition to these being subject to the same conditions as any other class of the population, they are subject to rigid hierarchical and disciplinary regimes. Nevertheless, they show aptitude for handling and constant contact with weapons in daily situations in the work environment, which can contribute to triggering internal conflicts and culminating in suicide ideas and attempts. Thus, aiming to problematize this theme, in order to implement actions to prevent suicide, this work is the product of the understanding of the nuances of the psychic suffering of military personnel in the Armed Forces of a Military Garrison in the city of Santa Maria - RS, in addition to developing interventions aimed at preserving the most important asset of human beings, life. It should be noted that the city mentioned has the second largest military contingent in the national Armed Forces. For this work, a structured research was carried out along the lines of a triangulation of combined methods, based on quantitative and qualitative data. The effective unit under study has 1500 active soldiers. The representative sample of the study consisted of a specific group of 645 male soldiers, aged between 18 and 29 years old. For data collection, a questionnaire was sent via Google Forms to all participants, resulting in 92 completed forms, which were made up of the current work sample. According to the results obtained, it was observed, over the lifetime of the participants, that 32% of them thought about “taking” their own life, while 5% of the individuals in the sample tried to commit suicide in the considered period. Based on these results, it was possible to trace the profile of soldiers belonging to the risk group regarding the topic at hand. It was part of this study, in addition to the investigation, the realization of an intervention through a focus group that constitutes the qualitative data. With the information listed from the group’s contributions, a suicide risk detection protocol can be developed to support the actions to be taken by the military professionals who make up the health team (doctors, psychologists, nurses, technicians, among others) of the current corporation in an attempt to build mechanisms to prevent this serious health problem.