Preventing suicide requires a broad, collaborative approach at many levels. Risk factors include mental disorders, barriers to accessing health care and social support, societal stressors, availability of lethal means, and more.
Protective factors include positive relationships, spiritual beliefs and coping strategies. Learn more about how you can help.
Identifying People at Risk
A person at risk for suicide should be identified as soon as possible. This can be done by gatekeepers like teachers, military commanders, and primary care givers who are trained to identify risk and refer for help. It can also be done through screening and community outreach.
When a person is at risk, identifying and being there for them can make all the difference in their life. This can include helping them establish a safety plan including removing guns and other lethal means from their home, storing medication such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) with others, and getting to know their suicide risk factors and warning signs.
In addition, community programs that increase connectedness and a sense of belonging, support-seeking skills, and reducing barriers to help-seeking are protective against suicide. Research shows that when people are unable to access their preferred method of suicide, they will substitute for a less deadly means such as pills or hanging.
Supportive Relationships and Community Connectedness
Creating supportive relationships and community connections can help prevent suicide. In fact, a recent study found that overall connectedness and connectedness in specific domains (peer, family, school) are protective against post-baseline suicide attempts, even among youth in identified risk groups such as youth with previous suicidal thoughts or attempts and those who identify as sexual minorities.
For Skip Johnson, Army Materiel Command’s Suicide Prevention Officer, connecting people to one another is the bigger picture behind combatting suicide. “Every suicide impacts at least 6 other individuals,” he says. “That’s why it’s important for everyone to be involved in preventing suicide.”
To maximize impact, national, state, tribal, and local organizations can partner together in a comprehensive approach to reducing suicide. Successful partnerships maximize diverse experience and expertise, foster creativity, new ideas and perspectives, and create a shared agenda with clear goals, objectives, actions, and measurable outcomes for suicide prevention. This is called upstream suicide prevention, focusing on the root causes of suicide and its impact on others.
Identifying Suicide Risk Factors
Identifying risk factors and warning signs can help to prevent suicide. Risk factors include mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder); serious and chronic/painful health condition; extremely stressful life events (e.g., death, divorce, job loss); or exposure to abuse, harassment and/or bullying. Static risk factors also include family history and prior suicide attempts. Contributory risk factors can include sleep problems such as insomnia and hypersomnia; lack of access to services like transportation and cost barriers to addressing needs such as food, housing, utilities and clothing; legal issues (arrest, court cases, debt); and poverty.
If someone you know is acting unusually or has a change in behavior, it’s important to act quickly and be there for them. Watch for behavior changes including talking about wanting to die, looking up how to kill themselves or having a weapon like a gun in their home. Also look for a sudden increase in drinking or using drugs.
Be There for Others
Thoughts of suicide and the risk of acting on them do not discriminate across ages, genders, cultures or ethnic groups. However, some people are more at risk than others.
Talking therapy can be an effective way to reduce suicidal thoughts and help prevent them from escalating into action. However, many people may not be able to access these services.
We need to expand opportunities for people to access support by enabling them to connect with their community, family and friends. This can be done by putting suicide prevention into wider governance structures such as whole-of-government approaches that tackle major social determinants of suicide at source and ensuring a broad range of players are involved in suicide prevention (eg, restricting access to lethal means).
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, it is important to ask them directly if they are, and to listen and express empathy without judgment. You can also support them to connect with 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or the 24/7 Crisis Text Line, and develop a safety plan together.