Keeping Suicide Awareness and Prevention Efforts Alive All Year Round
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), showing that suicide rates are up in nearly every state, lends an even greater urgency to our efforts to prevent suicide and give hope – not just in September, but all year round.
While the statistics may be upsetting, it’s important to remember that many lives are saved every day – many that we do not hear about. Suicide prevention and awareness is everyone’s business, and we all can contribute to stopping the rising tide of suicide in our communities.
Below you’ll find lots of resources for getting involved with advocacy, storytelling, and support. You can learn and share skills for supporting someone who is suicidal. You can organize an awareness event in your community or use social media to spread the word. You can share hopeful messages by people who have survived suicide and have found purpose and meaning in telling their stories. You can get inspired to share your own story using safe messaging strategies. And you can learn more about local and national resources for helping yourself or friends and loved ones in crisis.
We hope these resources will help you to use the momentum from National Suicide Prevention month to save lives and raise awareness all year round!
Get involved with NSPM (and beyond):
- Preventing Suicide Every Day: #AAS365 (American Association for Suicidology)
- Resources for National Suicide Prevention Month (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline)
Raise awareness in your community
- #BeThe1To: Learn and share the 5 steps for supporting someone who’s suicidal
Watch and share these #BeThe1To video stories
- Host a screening of The S Word documentary in your community – now available to the public! Featuring the story of Alameda county advocate Kelechi Ubozoh
- September’s ‘National Geographic’ Cover Features a Suicide Attempt Survivor (The Mighty) – provides useful information on how to think about and discuss suicide
Share hopeful stories of suicide attempt survivors
- Live Through This – stories and portraits of suicide attempt survivors
- Bringing “Stigma People” into Focus (Penn State Medicine)
- This is the Suicide Story You’re not Hearing (Cosmopolitan)
- Life After Attempting Suicide: What 4 Survivors Want You to Know (ABCNews.com)
Share your own story – safely!
- Submit your story to the Paul G. Quinnett Lived Experience Writing Contest (American Association of Suicidology)
- Special Considerations for Telling Your Own Story: Best Practices for Presentations by Suicide Loss and Suicide Attempt Survivors (American Association of Suicidology)
- The way we discuss suicide can unintentionally cause harm, but it doesn’t have to (Quartz)
Know local and national resources for help
- Crisis Support Services of Alameda County: 1-800-309-2131
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
- Crisis Text Line
- Trans Lifeline
- The Trevor Project
