Help people learn about the warning signs and protective factors that make suicide less likely. Provide educational materials and responsible media coverage of suicides.
Encourage people to talk about their feelings and find ways to support one another. Encourage them to reach out to a friend, family member, spiritual advisor or mental health professional.
Identifying People at Risk
Suicide is a global health problem, with 123 people killed by suicide every day. The cost to society is high: it costs the healthcare system over $70 billion and lost work productivity adds up to even more.
A range of factors at the individual, relationship, community and societal levels can increase the risk for suicide. Some of these include a history of suicide in the family, having a mental illness (including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression) or taking medications linked to a higher risk for suicide, and access to lethal means.
A key step in suicide prevention is identifying those who are at risk. This includes those who have had thoughts of killing themselves, or those who have made a plan for suicide such as purchasing a gun, collecting pills or writing a suicide note. Those who have these warning signs should be encouraged to seek help and to remove any lethal weapons from their home.
Increasing Life Skills
In addition to helping individuals learn life skills, programs that increase self-esteem and hope can also reduce suicidal thoughts. These kinds of programs can be delivered in a variety of settings, including schools.
Talking openly with friends about suicide is another way to help prevent it. Whether your friend is thinking about killing himself or just feeling down, telling him you care can make all the difference. But be careful not to make deals, as if you promise not to tell, you may end up putting him in more danger.
Ask your school if it has a crisis team. If not, consider asking that one be formed to teach all staff how to recognize warning signs and how to respond if a student is in crisis.
Screening, gatekeeper training and community education aimed at reducing stigma, providing information about risk factors and warning signs are strategies that have been shown to reduce suicide rates. These strategies are important at both the individual and systems level, as is ensuring access to effective mental health and suicide prevention treatment.
Enhancing Community Connectedness
Many suicides occur when people feel isolated and hopeless. Research suggests that people who are more connected to others have a greater ability to cope with adversity and may be less likely to think about or attempt suicide.
NIMH is supporting a wide range of activities that promote community connection and support in ways that are relevant to different populations and settings. These include programs that focus on strengthening family relationships, fostering social supports, and reducing stigma related to mental illness.
NIMH also supports efforts to help people with suicidal thoughts get the help they need. For example, many schools have crisis teams that train staff to recognize warning signs of suicide and how to respond if someone is in a crisis. People can also ask their local schools about the availability of support services, such as counseling or crisis hotlines. They can also check to see if their community has support groups that offer help and encouragement, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or religious groups with supportive fellowship.
Increasing Access to Care
Suicide is a complex phenomenon and it will require multiple strategies to reduce its risk. These include:
Education and training of gatekeepers (e.g., family members and authority figures such as teachers, police officers or military commanders, primary care physicians, nurses and community health workers) to identify persons at risk for suicide by teaching them to recognize warning signs, the value of life, and available resources and support services.
Education and training also may include reducing stigma related to mental disorders, teaching people about the prevalence of suicide in their communities and how to respond to a person who is at risk, and making support services more accessible and culturally appropriate. In addition, research suggests that fostering peer norms to seek help and reducing barriers to help-seeking such as removing lethal means from homes, providing self-help tools and making suicide hotlines more available can reduce suicidal behavior. In addition, a program involving ongoing follow-up after hospital discharge and promoting the involvement of family members in care after a suicide attempt was associated with reduced repeat attempts.