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A survey about opinions on end-of-life issues of a population represented by 1,171 people in the waiting room of general practitioners' surgeries was conducted in a province of northern Italy. Most subjects did not consider suicide as a reasonable option even in cases of a serious and incurable disease. Moreover, subjects did not consider euthanasia as a possible option either; however, they did express an opposite attitude when considering euthanasia in a third-person perspective. People with a personal history of suicidal behavior appear to present as a different population, overall expressing more open attitudes.

A survey about history of non-fatal suicidal behaviour was performed on 1,171 subjects in the waiting room of general practitioners’ practices in the territory of Rovigo (Northern Italy). The mean age of interviewed subjects was 52.9 ± 17.0, with a majority of female individuals. Two and two percent admitted previous experience of non-suicidal self-injury, 4.7 % admitted having had serious suicidal thoughts/plans, and 1.8 % reported at least one suicide attempt. Compared to the rest of the sample, people with history of suicidal behaviours resulted to be of younger age (p < .05), whilst their level of well-being was poorer (p < .001). When compared to the results of the Italian arm of the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders, carried out on general population samples, the present study produces higher rates of suicidality, despite the much higher mean age of the interviewed subjects compared to the general population.

In the prevention of suicide, there is a need to transform clinical studies into health promotion by a cooperation with territorial agencies. A survey on a group of stakeholders was performed with the methodology of focus group. The evaluation criteria used by the participants were practical and not methodological and were closely linked to the stakeholders' point of view. High importance was given to building a network in the territory and some indications came out for each target group (e.g., interventions in schools for adolescents). In conclusion, a qualitative survey on the stakeholders' opinion is useful, but it needs a steering that integrates the different points of view and joins them with methodological requirements and funds availability. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.