Media
Help Is
Available. Hope Is A Reality. Social isolation, mental illness, and difficult life transitions can play a role in suicide, but we also know that connectedness and a sense of belonging can protect against suicide. There are many ways that you can help yourself or someone else who might be struggling. In addition to seeking help from crisis services and mental health professionals, there are concrete actions the general public can take to keep our family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors safe and well. We all have a role to play in supporting someone who is struggling with thoughts of suicide, or grieving the loss of a loved one. Just as we provide support to a person experiencing a physical health issue or hardship, we must do the same to help someone in distress. Simply being there for a person who is struggling can help them feel less alone. Below please find some resources that you can use to help yourself—and the millions of people who have suicidal thoughts each year. Seek Help for Yourself If you are in crisis or struggling with thoughts of suicide, take immediate action:
If you are grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide, the following resources can help you in your journey to recovery: To prevent suicide, we need to be able to talk about it openly—without fear or shame. But how we talk about suicide matters. These conversations can be helpful or harmful. Suicide-related messages must be conveyed in ways that support safety, help-seeking, and healing. Towards this goal, the Action Alliance leads efforts focusing on three key groups: the news media, the entertainment media, and other organizations that regularly disseminate messages related to suicide. Media Messaging Real Stories How the news media covers suicide can either promote hope and help-seeking or increase hopelessness and the risk of contagion. Our Collaboration with the News Media The Action Alliance’s Changing the Conversation Priority Group leads work in the priority area of changing the conversation about suicide. The group seeks to improve messaging by focusing on three audiences: media and newsrooms, entertainment, and other organizations that disseminate messages about suicide prevention. Action Alliance efforts addressing the news media include:
For recent news and media inquiries, see our News & Media Inquiries page. Real Stories Initiative Real StoriesThe Action Alliance's Real Stories concept is a collaborative suicide prevention approach for news and entertainment. More information to follow. For immediate questions, please contact ktorguson@edc.org. Source:
theactionalliance.org/messaging 7 Mental Health
Campaigns that Made a Difference Much of this is down to intelligent use of data, enabling marketers to interrogate the numbers and understand where the barriers to communication lie, building a campaign that really works. We look at the most impactful mental health campaigns over the years, as well as one to watch out for this year, each one drawing on powerful consumer insights to create messages that resonate. 1. Heads Up – Heads Together and the FA In May 2019, Heads Together partnered with the FA to launch a campaign aiming to generate the biggest conversation around mental health ever seen. The Insight Research ahead of the campaign’s release revealed that the most common cause of death for men under 45 is suicide. The campaign discusses the general stigma around mental health, as well as the lack of understanding around how to support those suffering with it. But as a group, men are less likely to ask for support and less well positioned to offer support for others. 
2:04Harnessing the popularity of football to drive its message, Prince William, the main spokesperson for the campaign, announced its release at Wembley Stadium on May 15th. “As President of The FA I saw an opportunity to bring the sport I love – that many men talk about more than anything else in their lives – to help lead the next phase of the conversation.” The campaign will roll out at all tiers of the sport, from grassroots to the elite, to reach the largest number of fans possible. But whilst aimed at everyone, they hope football’s unique ability to reach men in particular will dive the dialogue amongst this high-risk group. The Results We are yet to witness how the campaign will be received by the public, but judging by its national news coverage, the FA‘s global influence, and big-name sponsors such as Emirates providing financial backing, you can guarantee this campaign will be wide-reaching. 2. The Power of Okay
1:48
See Me, Scotland’s
national programme to end mental health stigma and
discrimination, To tackle this issue, it commissioned a YouGov poll aimed at identifying the underlying causes of such stigmatization and discrimination, surveying 1,165 Scottish workers about their attitudes towards mental health. The Insight The results showed that 48% of people don’t tell their employers about mental health concerns for fear of losing their job. In addition, 55% thought that someone in their workplace with a mental health problem would be unlikely to disclose it for fear of being moved or passed over for promotion. The findings highlighted the importance of talking in order to combat this fear. As the charity stated: “Our research provided us with the insight to adopt a different tone. We embedded the language people used to describe their own illnesses. We empowered the audience to make things better by using the simple but powerful ‘Are you okay?’” The Message The resulting campaign was a video based on a poem which encapsulated this need to get people talking and asking colleagues, ‘Are you okay?’. It was shown in cinema and online, and was supported by a radio campaign. The campaign launched in November 2015, with website views growing by 42.8% as a result, while attracting 73% of new website visitors and a 22% visitor return rate. Why it Worked See Me identified the fear factor and tackled this by adopting people’s everyday language in the campaign. In particular, it challenged people to think again about the common turn of phrase, ‘Are you okay?’, normalizing the all-important conversation about how someone is feeling, yet reinforcing its importance. 3. #HereForYou – Instagram Earlier this year, Instagram co-founder and CEO, Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post: “Every day on Instagram, we see people share their mental health journeys and connect with communities of support. From dedicated accounts around an issue to unique hashtags adopted by groups, these communities are helping to make illnesses that are often invisible to friends and family visible through photos and videos.” The Insight This insight into the number of people turning to social media in search of mental health support inspired Instagram to launch its #HereForYou campaign last May. It was intended to encourage the existing community of people on Instagram to better support one another and find the appropriate help, spreading their support wider. The Message The one-minute campaign video features three Instagram users talking about their past struggles with eating disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts. The campaign used its flagship hashtag #HereForYou for the campaign – one that was already commonly used by Instagram users. Why it Worked Instagram recognized its platform had already spawned a community of people who come together to share experiences and to seek – and find – support. formalizing its role in connecting people with the help they need, ultimately growing its community. 4. UOKM8? – TheLADBible Group
4:22UOKM8? How To Help A Friend With Their Mental Health In September last year, TheLADBible Group launched a three month social content campaign entitled UOKM8? aimed at raising awareness of mental health issues among men. It was inspired by the fact that suicide is the biggest killer of British men under 45, and supported by its own audience poll which revealed that 37% of respondents had at some point considered ending their own life. The Insight As Ian Moore, from TheLADbible Group said: “Around half of all British men between 18-24 follow TheLADbible and I believe that by opening up our platform so our audience can talk about these issues, we can persuade young men to give themselves permission to talk about the feelings of isolation, anxiety and depression that they currently keep secret.” The Message TheLADBible partnered with a range of charities in an effort to engage its youth audience and get men to talk to each other. The campaign launched with Everyday Heroes, a series of documentaries featuring influential men, including Olympic gymnast Louis Smith talking about his own experiences of depression. This film alone attracted 3.8 million views on Facebook. Content also included articles such as Why Treating Your Mates Who Suffer from Mental Health Issues Differently Is Bullshit, which reached 900,000 people; and Here’s How Social Media Can Affect Your Health, which reached over 600,000. The campaign reached over 38 million young people and drove 823k engagements. Why it Worked TheLADBible’s audience data showed that it had the attention of around half of all British men aged between 18-24. This meant it was perfectly positioned to reach one of the most vulnerable audiences affected by mental health issues – and they could do it on their terms, in their language. 5. In Your Corner – Time to Change
1:00Time to Change is a charity that campaigns against mental health stigma. This year, it launched In Your Corner, a five-year campaign inspired by 12 months of research into men’s and young people’s attitudes towards mental health, including feedback from 18 focus groups across the country. The Insight This work spawned a number of insights into the barriers that prevent men in particular from opening up on the topic of mental health, chiefly that they are far less likely to report their own experiences of mental health issues or to discuss mental health problems with a professional. The Message The new campaign urges men to recognize how their attitudes and behaviors can influence others’ experiences of mental health problems, and that being in a friend’s corner can make all the difference. The ‘In Your Corner’ campaign launched with a film featuring three heroic ‘corner men’ – ordinary guys who are seen to be actively supporting and listening to a mate when he needs them. The films are being promoted online and supported by poster advertising in pubs and gyms. Why it Worked The campaign taps into the insight that men are likely to avoid mental health as a topic of conversation, whether it concerns themselves or a friend, colleague or family member. By using a sporting analogy sprinkled with humour, the campaign overcomes the feeling of awkwardness, while serious elements ward against flippancy and useful content inspires people to share it with others. 6. People Like Us – Mind in Harrow Harrow is the ninth most ethnically diverse local authority in England and Wales, with over 40 different ethnic communities. 27% of mental health cases in the area are among Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. Yet many people from BME communities who do have access to support services tend to access them at crisis point. In 2009, Mind in Harrow were commissioned by Harrow PCT to develop and deliver a mental health promotion campaign, targeting people from BME communities. The aim was to raise awareness around mental health and services amongst BME communities locally and increase engagement. The Insight Mind carried out a mental health needs assessment with BME communities in Harrow, including workshops and one-to-one meetings with the target audience. One key finding among the Asian group was that many people turn to religion and believe that faith helps them cope with everyday life, with people more likely to seek help from religious leaders than from GPs and mental health service providers. The Message The resulting creative featured photos of individuals from the BME community along with the tagline ‘People Like Us, which appeared on posters, fliers and booklets. A new website, peoplelikeus.info was also developed’. Figures showed that the campaign reached approximately 75,000 individuals from BME communities, and prompted 375 requests for signposting to mental health promotion workshops or other services. It has also resulted in 20,000 unique visitors per year to the website. Why it Worked By using powerful imagery of diverse people from distinctive communities, coupled with an all-embracing tagline, the campaign successfully relayed the message that mental health issues don’t just affect one ‘type’ of person, and that help can be found beyond individuals’ own ethnic or religious communities. 7. Wise Up – Young Minds Young Minds offers mental health support for young people across the UK, guiding them through their challenges and helping improve mental resilience. Wise Up was released to increase awareness of mental health issues in UK schools. According to an article published by its creators, the campaign aimed to put pressure on “the government to rebalance the education system to ensure the wellbeing of students is as important as academic achievement”. The Insight Wise Up’s cause was supported by a wealth of mental health insights which brought to light the depth of the problem in schools, as well as the breadth of causes that trigger mental health problems (such as exam pressure, social media and bullying).
The Message By placing the importance of mental health on a par with academic achievement in schools, Wise Up sought to bring attention to the damaging emphasis on performance over student wellbeing. The campaign took the form of videos with supporting written content, including a full report, (a 24 page PDF) to catch the attention of the general public as well as the Government’s school inspection body, Ofsted. Wise Up requested signatures from the public supporting its request for government initiatives, specifically, that Ofsted should measure schools on its attention to mental health. Young Minds anticipated this would encourage every school to put funding toward student wellbeing initiatives. The Results Since the launch of the campaign in 2017, they have delivered an open letter of 10,000 signatures to the Prime Minister and launched a Wise Up report in parliament, where over 40 MPs showed their support. Their voice was also heard directly by
Ofsted and arrangements were made to discuss what needs to
change in schools to support students. When
Prediction Is Not Prevention Last month we noted that it took two celebrity suicides and a seemingly shocking CDC report demonstrating increasing suicide rates in the US to get professionals, the media, and the public to finally focus their attention on suicide. Suddenly, medical journals, newspapers, and social media are abuzz with the news that we have an “epidemic of suicide” on our hands. A smoothly-produced CNN program hosted by Anderson Cooper, whose brother died by suicide, may be one of the best places to see how the media is dealing with the news that suicide is a terrible problem in the US. As usual, whenever we “discover” something that has always been a serious problem, there is a tendency to gloss over important facts in ways that can bedevil our desire to make the situation better. In this case, we are concerned that an emphasis in popular media on predicting which individuals are prone to suicide may be misplaced. As the public health community advocates, suicide prevention on a population level rather than prediction on an individual basis, should be our primary goal. If this focus is not adopted, we predict that health professionals will become even more reluctant to treat people who are at risk for suicide than they already are. Everyone seems to be citing the statistic that suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the US, hoping that this emphasizes its importance. But let’s look a little more carefully at that statistic. The top ten causes of death in 2014 were:
(Editor's note: Actually, if you really want to more closely and the ral numbers iinstead of combing all cncers, etc. into one category and actually look at the top 50 leading causes of dead in 2017 by the CDC, for Oregonians, the leading cause of four of 7 age breaks from 15-54, suicide was Number 1. And, Oregon was the only state which had more than three. - Gordon Clay In 2014, 614,348 people died from the number one cause of death, heart disease, whereas 42,773 died by suicide. Now, we totally agree that every life is precious, and 42,773 is a big number. Our point here is not that we should consider deaths by suicide as negligible, but rather to recognize that on epidemiological grounds such deaths are uncommon, representing only 1.6 percent of the deaths in the US in 2014. Statisticians traditionally consider an event that occurs less than 5 percent of the time to be a rare event. By that criterion, suicide, though tragic, is a rare event. This is important because everyone seems suddenly to be talking about suicide prevention. On a broad, population level, a public health approach to suicide prevention makes sense. But chasing the goal of predicting and preventing every individual case of possible suicide at the point of care is all the more difficult, given that suicide is a rare event in the first place. Two assumptions are commonly made about suicide: one, that we can predict who is at risk and two that with that knowledge we can prevent individuals from attempting suicide with treatment. With respect to prediction, it is true that we know some factors that increase the risk that someone will attempt suicide. Given this information and the fact that people who attempt suicide are usually suffering from conditions like depression, schizophrenia, or substance use disorders, it is natural to jump to the assumption that mental health professionals should be able to predict who is at risk for suicide and intervene with effective treatment to prevent that from happening by instituting effective treatment. In fact, the ability of any clinician to predict who is going to attempt suicide is notoriously poor. As psychiatrist Robert Simon wrote in 2002, “Psychiatrists cannot predict with certainty which patients will commit suicide. Suicide is a rare event. Attempts to predict suicide produce many false-positive and false-negative results.” In other words, most people we think might attempt suicide never do; only a small minority of people, even among those who suffer from mental illness, actually die by suicide. With respect to individual-level prevention, almost all experts agree that mental health care in the US—and indeed around the world—is inadequate. Many patients suffering from psychiatric illness do not have access to evidence-based psychiatric care. And given the fact that (a 2002) studies show that 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a mental disorder at the time of their deaths, it is understandable that we assume that if people get the treatment they need, deaths by suicide can be prevented. Sadly, however, even as treatment rates for depression increase in the developed world—more and more people are taking antidepressant medication than ever before—the suicide rate continues to increase. That doesn’t mean that antidepressants don’t work—they clearly do for people with moderate to severe levels of depression. Rather, it means that even for people who get mental health treatment, some will nonetheless kill themselves. Good mental health treatment can prevent many, but not all, suicides. The hazard presented by the way these two assumptions are generally framed is that they place the burden of predicting and preventing suicides squarely on the shoulders of individual psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals as they treat individual patients. An April 2018 Scientific American editorial points out that a substantial fraction of people who go on to die by suicide see mental health professionals or primary care doctors shortly before their deaths. “Yet,” the Scientific American editors note, “there are no national standards requiring these workers to know how to identify patients at serious risk of suicide or what techniques help them survive. If there were, perhaps some of those deaths could have been avoided." The Scientific American editors go on to call for mandatory training in suicide risk assessment and prevention for all mental health care professionals and primary care physicians. Training and evidence-based standards are all good things, and it is hard to argue against them when it comes to suicide prevention. But the editorial implies that it is the lack of such expertise that is responsible for the rising rates of suicide. There is absolutely no evidence to support the contention that this is the case. And advancing it as a cause of suicide has potentially devastating unintended consequences. Imagine a cardiologist who tells a patient with severe heart disease that she won’t accept him into her practice because he has a high risk of dying of a heart attack. Or an oncologist saying, “the type of cancer you have is potentially fatal and I don’t take on patients who might die.” These seem absurd, of course. We know that many patients who cardiologists and oncologists take care of will die because the illnesses they treat are serious ones that kill people. As long as doctors in those specialties do the best job they can in treating their patients, we do not fault them when some succumb. But we do not treat mental illness and suicide in the same way. Instead of acknowledging that depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse are potentially fatal illnesses, we hold psychiatrists and psychologists accountable for suicide deaths by expecting them to make accurate predictions. This leads many to refuse to treat patients who express suicidal thoughts or plans. As psychiatrist H. Steven Moffic recently wrote, “For psychiatrists, the suicide of one of our patients is probably the most distressing event in our career.” According to journalist Sulome Anderson, “Many psychiatrists refuse to treat chronically suicidal patients, not only because of the stigma that surrounds it even in their profession, but because suicide is the number-one cause of lawsuits brought against mental-health treatment providers. Even though it is far harder to predict suicide than heart attacks, we seem to think that psychiatrists ought to be able to do it and that their failure to do so is what puts people at risk. This problem extends to the research that is done to find better treatments for mental illness. Many clinical trials testing new antidepressant medication specifically exclude any patients who have suicidal thoughts or are at risk for suicide. The drug companies sponsoring these studies do not want the liability risk in case someone dies by suicide during a trial of an experimental medicine. This means that we have virtually no data from rigorous clinical trials about whether and which medications might actually decrease suicide risk. Only two psychiatric medications, lithium and clozapine, have ever been shown to reduce suicide risk and neither is specifically an antidepressant. Fortunately, this situation may change as the FDA recently proposed new guidelines that would permit including suicidal patients in antidepressant clinical trials. But whether drug companies will do so even with new guidelines is uncertain. There are some promising research leads that may improve prediction, but they are not ready for clinical use and may never be. What we need to do instead is to reassure mental health care professionals that because it is impossible for them to know who will die by suicide, we want them to treat patients with psychiatric illness to the best of their ability regardless of the risk for suicide, knowing that some of these patients may tragically and unavoidably die. Depression, like heart disease and cancer, is a potentially fatal disease and not all deaths can be either predicted or prevented. Rather than putting the burden on clinicians to sort out who might attempt suicide, experts in the field of suicide prevention, like those at the CDC, increasingly emphasize a public health approach. While preventing suicide on an individual basis is nearly impossible, there are a number of things we can to reduce the suicide rate on a population basis. These include putting up barriers to prevent jumping from bridges and tall buildings, restricting access to lethal means like firearms and opioids, and creating mental health educational programs in our schools. The rate of suicide in the US is
rising at a shockingly high rate, but suicide remains a rare
event. We must be very careful not to scare away
psychiatrists and psychologists from treating people with
serious mental illness because they fear a patient will die.
Rather, we must reassure them that prediction on an
individual basis is not an evidence-based method of suicide
prevention. Ensuring that suffering people have access to
high-quality mental health care regardless of their suicide
risk is much more likely to help. COVID-19
Reinforces A Renewed Call to Make Suicide Prevention a
National Priority A new national survey of over 2,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older shows that the majority of those surveyed (81%) say that, as a result of the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to make suicide prevention a national priority. Conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance), the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), and Education Development Center (EDC), the survey data also show 52% report being more open to talking about mental health as a result of COVID-19. The survey, which builds upon similar surveys conducted in 2015 and 2018, (34 page PDF) shows respondents overwhelmingly believe suicide can be prevented (93%). While 95% of those surveyed said they would do something if someone close to them was thinking about suicide, most people (69%) identified barriers that keep them from discussing suicide with others, such as not knowing what to say (31%), feeling they don’t have enough knowledge (28%), or not feeling comfortable with the topic (19%). These findings underscore the importance of equipping all Americans with the necessary tools and resources to feel empowered to have conversations about mental health and suicide prevention, and to take steps to care for their own mental health. Additionally, this data points to the critical role technology plays in providing support and services, particularly important given today’s social distancing rules in the wake of the pandemic. “These new findings indicate that the American people are ready for the nation to take action now to mitigate the short-term, and prevent any long-term, negative mental health or suicide-related consequences of the pandemic,” said Colleen Carr, director of the Action Alliance. “These complex and urgent public health issues require multi-sector perspectives and solutions.” “Our new survey data indicate Americans are ready and willing to have open conversations about mental health, and they are feeling more empathic (66%). Likely through the COVID-19 pandemic, people are growing stronger in their understanding of mental health and are more supportive of each other. The next step we must take is to make sure that when they try to access mental health care, they are able to find effective, culturally competent, affordable care,” said Dr. Christine Moutier, AFSP’s chief medical officer. MEDIA CONTACTS:
“Our country has never witnessed a public health and economic event of this proportion in recent history. The pandemic continues to take a toll on many people’s health and well-being,” said Dr. Jerry Reed, senior vice president for practice leadership at EDC. “Yet, with challenges come opportunities. This data shows us that Americans see these issues as critically important and that they want to play a role in addressing them. We must take bold steps now to support those who are struggling and to emerge a stronger country.” To help change the public conversation about these issues and empower Americans with action steps they can take to support others, as well as to strengthen mental health and suicide prevention, the Action Alliance recently launched the Mental Health & Suicide Prevention National Response to COVID-19 (National Response). Working with public and private sector partners like AFSP, SPRC, and EDC, the Action Alliance’s National Response is committed to creating lasting cultural, systems, and policy changes that ensure equitable access to the care, support, and services—both in and outside of clinical settings. In addition, AFSP’s Project 2025 continues to work to reduce the rate of suicide 20% by 2025 by focusing on four specific areas: primary care settings, emergency departments, the gun owning community and correction systems. OTHER KEY FINDINGS: The online survey—conducted in July 2020—assessed public perceptions about suicide and mental health. The survey also found:
FOR MEDIA PARTNERS: Research shows that the media may influence suicide rates by the way they report on suicide. Evidence suggests that when the media tell stories of people positively coping in suicidal moments, more suicides can be prevented. We urge all members of the media working on these stories to refer to the Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide for best practices for safely and accurately reporting on suicide. For stories of persons with lived experience of suicidality and finding hope, refer to www.lifelineforattemptsurvivors.org. ABOUT THE NATIONAL ACTION ALLIANCE FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION: The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention is the nation’s public-private partnership working to advance the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and make suicide prevention a national priority. The Action Alliance and its initiatives are supported by funding from the public and private sector including support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide operational support via EDC. Learn more at actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following the Action Alliance on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. ABOUT THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION: The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide. AFSP creates a culture that’s smart about mental health through education and community programs, develops suicide prevention through research and advocacy, and provides support for those affected by suicide. Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, and with a public policy office in Washington, D.C., AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report, and join the conversation on suicide prevention by following AFSP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. ABOUT THE EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT CENTER: The Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Since 1958, it has been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs in more than 80 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.edc.org and follow on Facebook and Twitter. ABOUT THE SUICIDE PREVENTION RESOURCE CENTER: The
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
(SPRC) is the nation’s only federally funded resource
center dedicated to advancing the National Strategy for
Suicide Prevention. SPRC works with states, tribes, health
systems, colleges and universities, and other public and
private groups, bringing the latest science and interactive
resources to support suicide prevention efforts across the
country. The SPRC project is currently based at the
nonprofit Education
Development Center. Follow us
on Facebook
and Twitter.
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