Suicide and Black American males: An interview with Sean Joe, Ph.D., LMSW The Social Work Podcast

Episode 56: Today's podcast is on Suicide and Black American Males. Why suicide and Black Americans? Well, there is a belief among most Americans, and particularly among African American adults, that Black Americans do not kill themselves (Joe, 2006). When we think of violent death among Black Americans we think of homicide. Suicide is thought of as a “White” problem. While it is true that suicide was not a leading cause of death for African Americans 40 years ago, today it is the third leading cause of deaths among African Americans 15 – 24 years of age. So why Black American Males specifically? Well, among all racial and ethnic groups, the suicide rate is lowest among Black American females. Given that Black American males, particularly youth, are over-represented in social services, social workers need to be aware of the risk for suicide, and prepared to provide potentially life-saving services. One thing that makes social workers professionals is that we are trained to see things that others do not. Most of us have not been trained to see suicide as an important issue in the Black American community. It is my hope that after hearing today's guest, Dr. Sean Joe from the University of Michigan, you will be more likely to see suicide among Black American males as an important clinical and programmatic issue.

Dr. Joe holds a joint position as associate professor in the School of Social Work and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan's School of Medicine. He is also a faculty associate with the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Dr. Joe is a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among African Americans. He is the 2009 recipient of the Edwin Shneidman Award from the American Association of Suicidology for outstanding contributions in research to the field of suicide studies and the 2008 recipient of the Early Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research. He serves on the board of the Suicide Prevention Action Network (SPAN USA), the scientific advisory board of the National Organization of People of Color Against Suicide, and the editorial board of Advancing Suicide Prevention, a policy magazine. He is co-chair of the Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network (ESIN) Research Study Group on African American Suicide, a national interdisciplinary group of researchers committed to advancing research in this area. He has published extensively in the areas of suicide, violence, and firearm-related violence.
In today's podcast, Sean talks why it is important to look at the suicide rate among Black American males, specifically adolescent males. He talks about how recent research has started to put together a profile for Black American Males most at risk for suicide, and the factors that seem to protect against suicide. He talks about some of the social and historical factors associated with the increase in suicide rates among Black Americans. Sean gives an example of how he talks with Black Americans about suicide and stigma. We talked about recommendations for social workers who are working with Black American males who might be suicidal, including talking about faith, valuing that child, having a vision of that child as an adult, and healthy masculinity. Sean discussed some resources for social workers interested in learning more about this topic. We ended the interview with Sean extending an invitation to social work clinicians and researchers to join him to better understand suicide and suicidal behaviors in Black Americans.

One quick word about today's podcast: I recorded today's podcast using a Zoom H2 recorder on location at the Society for Social Work Research annual conference. If you listen closely you can hear the sounds of San Francisco in the background: a clock chiming, busses loading and unloading passengers, and even some pigeons congregating outside of the interview room. The