The numbers are staggering. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 33,000 people commit suicide every year in the United States. Put this in the context of time and it really hits home: one suicide occurs every 16 minutes. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24 (behind motor vehicle accidents and homicides), and the second leading cause of death for college students.

Beyond completed suicides, an estimated 832,500 people attempt suicide each year. During their lifetimes, an estimated 13.8 million Americans will attempt suicide.

Clearly, suicide is a major public health problem. How are we to deal with this? One way is to develop and implement effective suicide prevention messages.

Myths About Suicide That Need to be Overcome

Each suicide is unique. The stories are different, as well as the underlying causes and aggravating situations. Methods also vary. There are a number of myths and common misunderstandings surrounding suicide that need to be dispelled by suicide prevention messages.

• People who talk about suicide rarely actually do it. – This is false. People who talk about suicide aren’t just looking for attention and hoping someone will call their bluff. They may actually be giving others a warning or clue about their intentions. Anyone who talks about committing suicide needs to be taken seriously. The best thing to do is get professional help for the person talking about killing themselves.

• If you ask someone about their suicidal feelings, it will cause them to attempt it. – Experts in suicide prevention say that, contrary to the notion that asking someone about their intentions to commit suicide will push them over the edge, getting the person to open up about their feelings is actually a good thing to do. This dialogue provides an opportunity that may save the person’s life. As a listener, you need to determine if the individual is intent on committing suicide, has a plan, and has the means or access to the means to carry it out. If the answer is yes to all three, the suicidal individual should never be left alone. Get help immediately or call 911.

• Once a person tries to commit suicide and fails, they won’t do it again. – The facts prove otherwise. After a failed suicide attempt, the chances are even greater that the individual will try to kill themselves again, perhaps using a different method. Experts say that any suicide attempt is a desperate cry for help and should never be ignored or minimized.

• Anyone who’s suicidal just wants to die and feels there’s no turning back. – Some may feel this way, but many suicidal persons have a great deal of ambivalence about what they’re contemplating. They may go through a long period of time during which they try other ways to ameliorate their pain – through substance abuse, gambling, compulsive sex, overwork. Their feelings about wanting to live and wanting to die see-saw back and forth, often right up to the point where they take their lives – or make the attempt.

• Generally, people who kill themselves do so after careful, rational thought. – Again, this is a myth. What’s true is that very often people who talk about or contemplate taking their lives are so blinded by their emotional and/or physical pain that they can’t see a way out of it other than to kill themselves. They don’t see any alternatives and, as a result, often act out of impulse to end their pain. Once their pain and suffering is reduced, however, most such individuals choose to live.

Attitudes Toward Suicide

Along with myths surrounding suicide, people’s beliefs and attitudes about the ending of life also need to be challenged.

One such erroneous belief is that nothing can be done to prevent suicide. If someone’s bent on killing themselves, you can’t stop them. This is absolutely wrong.

Another attitude that stands in the way of suicide prevention is lack of understanding that major depression – which can lead to suicide – is an illness. It isn’t weak character, and it doesn’t have to be a permanent condition. Major depression is a treatable mental illness. But the depressed person cannot treat themselves. They can’t just “tough it out.” Suicide does not have to be the inevitable outcome of major depression.

Stigma about suicide still permeates some parts of society in America. This may be a leftover from the days when suicide was considered a damnable sin, a crime punishable by law, and the person who committed suicide was banned from a Christian burial. Shame and stigma about suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts creates an environment where people are reluctant to talk, or to seek help for a treatable condition.

Teen Suicide Prevention Campaign

“Suicide Shouldn’t Be a Secret” is the key theme of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s teen suicide prevention campaign. The campaign consists of TV and radio PSAs. The TV PSAs air in 85 U.S. markets and reach over 88 million TV viewers.

The TV PSAs include “Taking Action,” “Breaking Trust,” and “Secret,” and convey a message to teens that it’s okay to break a friend’s trust in order to get help for that person. Radio PSAs of “Taking Action” and “Breaking Trust” are also airing.

Effective Suicide Prevention Messages in AAS-Recommended DVDs/Videos

The American Association of Suicidology (AAS) recommends various DVDs/videos for age-appropriate audiences on the subject of suicide prevention. A brief summary of the videos and the messages follows:

• Reaching Out – This 21-minute DVD produced by the Crisis Intervention & Suicide Prevention Center of British Columbia presents suicide prevention messages effectively. Two characters’ stories are presented, interspersed with interviews with real young people whose lives have been touched by suicide. There is no glamorization of suicidal behavior and suicide attempters and survivors are not stigmatized. Warning signs of suicide, adult resources, and help-seeking behavior are highlighted. For ordering and purchase information, go to www.choices2.com.

• A Cry For Help – Paraclete Press produced this 22-minute video on suicide prevention appropriate for middle school and high school students. The video, according to AAS, describes effective suicide intervention skills, although these are not necessarily modeled. In the video, a clinical social worker interacts with students from grades 6 through 12 who have learned suicide warning signs and how to help. The video may be ordered online at www.paracletepress.com.

• The Truth About Suicide – Ant Hill Marketing produced this 26-minute video for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The video presents effective suicide prevention messages and is designed for college and high school students. Effective suicide intervention and help-seeking skills are discussed and recommended. There is no stigmatization of suicide attempters, survivors, or those who have died by suicide. It also does not glamorize suicide or suicidal behavior. For more information, contact AFSP at 1-888-333-AFSP or go to www.afsp.org.

• A Life Saved – The story of three boys who performed a suicide intervention is told in this 10-minute video from The Noodlehead Network. The boys had just completed a school suicide prevention unit called “Lifelines – A School-Based Response to Youth Suicide.” In documentary style, the video informs viewers how to intervene in suicidal behavior. It is very effective, say AAS reviewers, in teaching youth about suicide prevention. Order the video from www.noodlehead.com or contact Susan O’Halloran at sueoh@mcd.org.

• Never Enough – Developed with guidance from child psychologist Dr. Kirk Wolfe, this video, appropriate for high school and college students, presents clear suicide prevention messages, does not glamorize suicide or suicidal behavior, and emphasizes help-seeking skills. Reviewers commented that the hero was the helper in the video, especially the way the young hero used his skills helping the mother of the suicidal friend. Contact Columbia Care Services for information at 1-541-607-7322.

• Depression: On The Edge – Produced by In The Mix, a weekly PBS series for teens, this video is appropriate for high school students. It comes with a discussion guide and lesson plan. Presenters include psychologists, depressed young people, and members of the rock band, Third Eye Blind. For information and ordering, go to www.pbs.org or call 1-800-597-9448.

• Suicide: A Guide to Prevention – With help from counselors, a group of teens created this 13-minute video to show their peers what to do when someone shows suicide warning signs or starts talking about committing suicide. Appropriate help-seeking and intervention behaviors are shown through role-playing that demonstrates friends helping friends. Each intervention involves an adult. Noodlehead Network carries the video, www.noodlehead.com.

What Effective Suicide Prevention Messages Convey

According to SPAN USA, to be effective, suicide prevention messages should strive to raise public awareness of the problem, eliminate stigma associated with suicide, emphasize the mental health component, and propose solutions. Messages should be carefully crafted. SPAN USA offers the following tips to creating effective suicide prevention messages:

• Clear, concise messages are most effective.

• Memorable messages create an image.

• Use anecdotes, similes, metaphors and word pictures.

In addition, effective suicide prevention messages may contain a human-interest element, have broad basic appeal, timed to be relevant to a current event, feature local statistics or spokespersons, or give access to information sources or people.

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center recommends the following practices in creating effective messages to raise public awareness of suicide prevention:

• Emphasize help-seeking and provide information on finding help.

• Emphasize prevention.

• List suicide warning signs, as well as risk and protective factors of suicide.

• Highlight treatments for underlying health problems.

Practices to avoid, the “Don’ts,” include:

• Don’t romanticize or glorify suicide or people who have died by suicide.

• Don’t present suicide as a common event – this normalizes it.

• Don’t focus on the personal details of the individual who died by suicide.

• Don’t explain suicide as a result of stress only or present it as an inexplicable act.

• Don’t present overly detailed descriptions of the methods of suicide or of the victims of suicide.

Books on the Subject of Suicide

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention lists several books of interest on the subject of suicide. Here are some of the titles:

• Aftershock: Help, Hope and Healing in the Wake of Suicide, by Candy Neely Arrington

• An Empty Chair, by Sara Swan Miller

• Assembling My Father, by Anna Cypra Oliver

• But I Didn’t Say Goodbye, by Barbara Rubel

• A Daughter’s Touch, by Sylvia M. Lasaland

• Dying To Be Free: A Healing Guide For Families After A Suicide, by Beverly Cobain and Jean Larch

• Grieving a Suicide, by Albert Y. Hsu

• A Hike For Mike, by Jeff Alt

• Monochrome Days: A First-Hand Account Of One Teenager’s Experience With Depression, by Cait Irwin, Dwight L. Evans, M.D., and Linda Wasmer Andrews

• Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, by Kay Redfield Jamison

• No Time To Say Goodbye, by Carla Fine

• Remembering Garrett: One Family’s Battle With A Child’s Depression, by D.C. Gordon Smith

• Silent Grief, by Clara Hinton

• Surviving Bill, by Mike Reynolds

• Touched By Suicide: Hope and Healing After Loss, by Michael F. Myers and Carla Fine

• Will’s Choice, by Gail Griffith

• Why People Die By Suicide, by Thomas Joiner

Effective Suicide Prevention Messages Work

In the end, the most important point about suicide prevention messages is that they work. Together, raising public awareness of the problem, eliminating the stigma surrounding suicide, working with the media and the entertainment industry to encourage responsible portrayals of suicide, mental illness and help-seeking behaviors, and putting forth available treatment and assistance will go a long way toward reducing the overall numbers of suicides annually.

Individuals can help promote effective suicide prevention messages by working to eliminate the myths, by being proactive, persistent and compassionate in helping suicidal individuals to get professional help. When you consider that each suicide leaves behind at least six, and sometimes hundreds of survivors, anything we can do as individuals and collectively to help reduce the incidence of suicide is a very good thing.

Article by Suzanne Kane