![](/sites/default/files/styles/full_sm/public/2021-08/tas-health-default-branding.jpg?itok=Ef6qkZDJ)
Suicide prevention best practice
Communicating about suicide
Communication about suicide needs to be done in a manner that is safe, carefully considered and includes help services and information for people to access should they need it. Evidence indicates that people are more likely to seek help when appropriate services are included in communications referencing suicide or self-harm.
People with lived experience of suicide may be particularly impacted by language. There are dedicated resources about preferred language that you or your organisation can use when talking about suicide. Please refer to the below guidelines to support safe and effective communication.
- Mindframe: Mindframe supports safe media reporting, portrayal and communication about suicide, mental ill-health, alcohol and other drugs.
- Conversationsmatter.org.au: Conversations Matter is a suite of online resources developed to support community discussion about suicide.
- National Communications Charter: The National Communications Charter (The Charter) is an evidence-informed resource to guide the way mental health and suicide prevention sectors, government, business and community members talk about mental health concerns and suicide.
Accurate data on suicide and suicidality is important in understanding impacts on individuals, families, and communities, and to identify where additional supports may be needed. Knowing the facts about suicide is important to debunk myths about suicide. Sensitive, evidence-based communication plays an important role in reducing stigma. Decreasing stigma, fear, and misinformation around suicide may increase an individual’s likelihood of seeking help if they need it or offering support to others.
For more information on suicide and self-harm monitoring, please visit the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Please note that data alone does not tell the full story about suicide and the impacts on Tasmanians.
Suicide arises from a complex interaction between potential vulnerabilities, risk factors and stressors in a person’s life. Suicide can also be influenced by social and economic circumstances, pressures, and expectations.
term | meaning |
---|---|
suicide | The act of purposely ending one’s life. |
suicide attempt | Any non-fatal behaviour aimed at purposely ending one’s life. |
suicidal thoughts/thinking | Thoughts about suicide. These thoughts may vary in intensity and duration from fleeting thoughts to a complete preoccupation with wanting to die. While not all people who have thoughts about suicide will attempt or die by suicide, thoughts about suicide can be very distressing and should be taken seriously. This may also be referred to as suicidal ideation. |
suicidal behaviour | Thinking about or planning taking one’s own life or attempting suicide. |
suicidal/suicide crisis | Refers to a state or situation where someone is seriously contemplating ending their life or is planning to do so. |
suicide prevention | The actions we take to prevent suicide and suicidal behaviours and to support people who have been impacted by suicide. These actions are focused on reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors. |
lived and/or living experience of suicide | Having experienced suicidal thoughts; survived a suicide attempt; cared for someone through suicidal crisis; or been bereaved by suicide. ‘Living experience’ may be preferred by some people to indicate that the personal experience is current and not in the past. |
Suicide prevention best practice
Thoughts of suicide can happen to anyone regardless of whether or not they have a mental illness. While people living with a mental illness are at increased risk of suicide, the relationship is complex. People who have never experienced a diagnosed mental illness can experience suicidal thoughts.
Whilst deaths by suicide are statistically uncommon, the impact of every death is uniquely, deeply, and widely felt. For each suicide death, up to 135 people are affected (1). This means that almost every Tasmanian will be touched in some way by suicide over the course of their life.
Whilst there are contributing factors that may contribute to suicide and suicidal ideation, there are also many protective factors (2) which help strengthen the resilience of individuals and communities against these risk factors. It is important to remember that the presence of one or more of these contributing factors cannot predict or explain suicide or intentional self-harm as each person’s experience is unique. Experiencing any of these risk factors does not necessarily mean a person has—or ever will—attempt suicide, but establishing whether a person has any of these risk factors can help determine whether they are at increased risk. Also, some people will have suicidal thoughts without having a history of any risk factors.
Protective factors include:
Individual Protective Factors
These personal factors protect against suicide risk:
- effective coping and problem-solving skills
- reasons for living (for example, family, friends, pets, etc.)
- strong sense of cultural identity.
Relationship Protective Factors
These healthy relationship experiences protect against suicide risk:
- support from partners, friends, and family
- feeling connected to others.
Community Protective Factors
These supportive community experiences protect against suicide risk:
- feeling connected to school, community, and other social institutions
- availability of consistent and high quality physical and behavioural healthcare.
Societal Protective Factors:
These cultural and environmental factors within the larger society protect against suicide risk:
- reduced access to lethal means of suicide among people at risk
- cultural, religious, or moral objections to suicide.
The Tasmanian Suicide Prevention Strategy 2023–2027 (TSPS) works across government, services and community to embed evidence-informed initiatives and approaches to increase protective factors across the lifespan of people living in Tasmania to strengthen communities and prevent suicide.
Suicide is not a failure on the part of the individual. Nor is any one person to blame. From individuals to community groups, organisations, and all levels of Government – we all have a role to play in preventing suicide.
Whilst whole population primary prevention approaches are effective, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to suicide prevention. The TSPS and TSPS Implementation Plan will prioritise and deliver activities that meet the needs of specific population groups in Tasmania who have been identified as being at increased risk of suicide – these include:
- Tasmanian Aboriginal people
- men
- LGBTIQA+ people
- young people
- people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
- Australian Defence Force personnel and veterans.
Informed by a comprehensive consultation process, the Tasmanian Government is leading the implementation of multi-sectoral strategies to address suicide. This is guided by six key recommendations, which are to:
1 | Prevent and respond early to distress. | We need to focus on prevention and early intervention across all settings, including actions to increase protective factors and reduce distress. |
2 | Enhance the services we provide. | We need a full range of connected services, programs and support that are affordable and accessible for all Tasmanians. |
3 | Compassion is key to our approach. | We need a compassionate approach across all settings so that when people reach out for support, they are listened to without judgement. |
4 | Strengthen our communities. | We need our communities to be empowered to plan and respond to suicide and its impacts. This includes tailored response to meet specific community needs. |
5 | Build and support our workforce. | We need our suicide prevention responses to focus on developing, growing and supporting our workforce so that people in distress receive person‑centred care. |
6 | Improve the way we implement and evaluate. | We need effective implementation, ongoing evaluation and quality improvement processes to help us know and understand what works and who it works for. |
The consultation process that informed this strategy and implementation actions was one of the largest of its kind. We heard from people across Tasmania about what suicide prevention means to them and the preventive actions they want to see. We heard from Tasmanians with lived experience of suicide, workforce members and thought leaders as well as community and population groups.
References
(1) J Cerel, MM Brown, M Maple, M Singleton, J van de Venne, M Moore and C Flaherty, ‘How many people are exposed to suicide? Not six’, Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 2019, 49(2):529-534, doi:10.1111/sltb.12450.
(2) Risk and protective factors (2022) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/factors/index.html (Accessed: 06 October 2023).