ABSTRACT
The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) grew out of a meeting convened by Erwin Ringel in Vienna, Austria in September, 1960. In 1955, Ringel had founded a suicide prevention center in Vienna in cooperation with the Catholic Church and the Catholic welfare organization, Caritas. A team of psychiatrists, doctors, social workers, psychotherapists, psychologists, lawyers, and pastoral workers was established and the center was given the name Lebensmüsorge or The Center for Care of those Tired of Living. It was arranged that those who had attempted suicide would be admitted to the detoxification ward of the University Psychiatric Clinic, and that aftercare would be provided by Lebensmiiden fursorge.
