Each year during the month of September, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) organize and promote Suicide Prevention Month.
The goals of Suicide Prevention Month include:
- Remembering friends, loved ones, and family members lost to suicide
- Recognize friends, loved ones, and family members who experience suicidal thoughts or engage in suicidal behavior
- Support communities disproportionately impacted by suicide
- Raise awareness about suicide prevention
- Share messages of hope for friends, loved ones, and family members impacted by suicide
This year, the organizers chose a call to action as a theme for Suicide Prevention Month:
Care. Connect. Collaborate.
The components of this call to action have real meaning for people around the country:
Care:
This tells people affected by suicide they matter, and we’re committed to creating effective prevention, intervention, and postvention – i.e. follow up – support.
Connect:
When we increase our interactions with different cultures and communities with information about suicide and suicide prevention, and when we connect people to the data they need to make informed decisions around suicide prevention, we can reduce the impact of suicide on those cultures, communities, and people.
Collaborate:
We must include people with lived experience with suicide and suicidality, public and private sector entities, and communities impacted by suicide in our ongoing suicide prevention efforts. Every person has a role to play in achieving our collective suicide prevention goals.
In addition, the organizers of Suicide Prevention Week, from September 8th – 14th, and World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th.
Anyone can participate in the awareness effort, beginning by sharing these hashtags on social media:
- #SuicidePreventionMonth for Suicide Prevention Month.
- #SPM24 also for Suicide Prevention Month
- #NSSP for National Suicide Prevention Plan
- #BeThe1To in order to encourage people to “be the one who helps”
- #988Day to remind people about the National Suicide Hotline
- #SuicidePrevention for general suicide prevention awareness
To join the movement, be the one who shares resources and information via any preferred platform: the wider we spread the message, the more lives we can save.
Why Do We Need Suicide Prevention Month?
Most of us understand why we need suicide prevention month, but we’ll explain for those who aren’t aware of the alarming developments public health efforts have identified over the past two decades.
Before the pandemic in 2020, the media and public health officials sounded the alarm about increasing rates of suicide in the United States, particularly among youth. They had good reason: data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed a dramatic 37 percent increase in suicide rates between 2000-2018. While overall suicide rates decreased between 2018-2020, they rose again after the pandemic, reaching a historic high of 49,449 in 2022. Provisional data for 2023 – yet to be confirmed – shows a total of 49,315 suicide fatalities, a decrease of less than one percent.
Among those increases, the most concerning involved youth and young adults. In 2021, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people aged 10 -24, and among the top four leading causes of death for age groups 10-14, 15-19, and 20-24.
Read our analysis of these trends here:
Are Suicide Rates Still Increasing for Teens and Young Adults?
The evidence makes the situation clear: suicide is an increasing problem in the U.S., particularly among young people.
What Have We Done to Address the Problem?
This is one area where the media and policymakers have joined mental health awareness advocates to organize and implement real programs that help millions of people.
In 2022, the White House allocated $1.5 billion to create a national suicide hotline, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Over the first two years of operation, the hotline proved both necessary and effective. Counselors responded to over 10 million texts, calls, and chats from people seeking crisis support. The crisis line now includes specialized support for veterans, LGBTQIA+ people, youth and teens, and non-Anyone who reaches out for help gets connected with a trained counselor who offers real support in times of crisis.
That’s not all we’ve done. The federal government recently announced a new set of comprehensive national policies, backed by two million dollars in funding, to address the suicide crisis in the U.S.
Our New National Policies: How We Can Prevent Suicide
In 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a revised national action plan for suicide prevention. The 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention revolves around achieving a significant number of specific goals designed to move us in four key strategic directions.
Here’s how the HHS describes the new plan:
“The 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention is a bold new 10-year, comprehensive, whole-of-society approach to suicide prevention that provides concrete recommendations for addressing gaps in the suicide prevention field.”
And here are the four strategic directions and their related goals:
1. Direction One: Suicide Prevention in Communities
- Creating collaborative and sustainable suicide prevention programs
- Address/restrict access to lethal means for people at risk
- Increase follow-up support for people engaged in suicidal behavior
- Promote suicide prevention efforts in communities and workplaces
- Expand local, state, tribal, and territorial prevention infrastructure
- Expand communication to diverse populations
2. Direction Two: Improving Treatment and Crisis Support
- Establish suicide prevention services in core, primary health care
- Remove barriers to and improve crisis services nationwide
3. Direction Three: Expanding and Improving Research
- Improve all aspects of suicide-related data monitoring and research, including “…quality, timeliness, scope, usefulness, and accessibility.”
- Expand support for suicide prevention research
4. Direction Four: Suicide Prevention Equity and Inclusion
- Ensure prevention efforts are based in overall health equity
- Expand programs for groups at high risk of suicide, including marginalized/underserved communities, people with a history of suicidality, and young people
- Ensure prevention and crisis staff are diverse and receive high-quality, effective training
- Enhance data, research, and monitoring among high-risk communities
If we follow through on these action steps and achieve these goals, it’s possible to decrease suicide rates and minimize the impact on individuals, families, and communities. Here’s additional data published in the NSSP that demonstrates the importance of this effort.
In 2023:
- 13 million adults seriously considered suicide
- 4 million planned to attempt suicide
- 2 million people attempted suicide
The data are overwhelming and impossible to ignore.
But what can we, as individuals, do to help?
How We Can Participate in Suicide Prevention Day, Week, and Month
The National Center for Suicide Prevention (NCSP) and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) offers several sets of steps people can take to prevent suicide and support people at risk of suicide.
Before we share those steps, please remember:
If someone you know is at immediate risk of harm, call 911 or go to the emergency room. If they’re not in immediate danger but are in crisis, help them connect to support via the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Now let’s take a look at how we can all do our part.
First, we can share the hashtags we list in the intro to this article: #SuicidePreventionMonth, #SPM24, #NSSP, #BeThe1To, #988Day, and #SuicidePrevention.
Next, if we know anyone at risk of suicide, there are five steps that can help us #BeThe1To.
Five Ways You Can Help Friends or Family at Risk
- Check in: ask how they are
- Presence: be there when they need you
- Help Keep them safe in whatever ways you can
- Connect: help them find the resources they need when they need them
- Stay Connected: One call or conversation can make a big difference, but its also critical to follow up to make sure they know they matter to you – not just at a moment in time, but always
Here’s how we can Take 5 Save Lives:
Take 5 to Save Lives: Five Simple Suicide Prevention Steps
- Learn the warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors for suicide (see below)
- Know how to help yourself and others
- Raise awareness, volunteer, and take care of yourself
- Talk with people about suicide to decrease stigma and debunk myths
- Share the steps above with others
Suicide and Mental Health Crisis Hotlines and Helplines
The following resources are free, and available to everyone:
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
- The Trevor Project Phone (24/7/365) for LGBTQIA+ teens: 1-866-488-7386
- The Trevor Project Text (7 days/wk, 6am-am ET, 3am-10pm PT): Text START to 678678
- The Trevor Project Chat: CLICK HERE
- The Crisis Text Line (24/7/365): Text CONNECT to 741741
- The Youth Yellow Pages TEEN LINE (6pm-10pm PT) 310-855-4673
- The Youth Yellow Pages TEXT: Text TEEN to 839863
*Suicide: Warning Signs, Risk Factors, and Protective Factors*
Warning Signs:
These are red flags for suicidality:
- Talking about suicide or wanting to die
- Seeking access to lethal means
- Talk about hopelessness/talk about not wanting to live
- Talk about overwhelming unbearable psychological /emotional pain
- Expressing the idea they’re a burden on friends, family, and loved ones
- Escalating alcohol/drug use
- Extreme restlessness/agitation
- Changes in sleep: too little or too much
- Withdrawal/isolation
- Talking about revenge, i.e. getting back at people/the world
- Severe, uncharacteristic mood swings
Risk Factors:
Presence of the following increases risk of suicide:
- Hopelessness/extreme sadness/persistent low mood
- Impulsivity/aggression
- History of trauma, neglect, abuse
- Chronic illness
- Previous suicide attempt
- Family history of suicide
- Recent job loss/financial problems
- Recent relationship problems
- Access to means to commit suicide
- Absence of support
- Isolation
- Mental health disorders, including mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and certain personality disorders
- Lack of mental health care
- Exposure to suicidality in other people
- Alcohol/substance use disorder (AUD/SUD)
Protective Factors
Presence of the following decreases risk of suicide:
- Professional support for mental health and/or substance use disorder
- Access to support, including the helplines/hotlines listed above
- Absence of access to lethal means
- Robust family, social, and community support network
- Presence of quality healthcare
- Robust stress management, conflict resolution, and problem-solving skills
- Cultural and/or religious beliefs that discourage suicidality
