Changing the Narrative on Suicide: World Suicide Prevention Day

The theme of this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day is Changing the Narrative on Suicide – but what does that really mean? 

The World Health Organisation and the International Association for Suicide Prevention remind us of the need to challenge the stigma that surrounds suicide. It means being open about the pain, the loss, and the tragedy, and not letting silence deepen the hurt. 

Changing the narrative also means recognising suicide as a major public health issue and a shared community responsibility. Talking about suicide openly, without stigma, discrimination, or judgment, helps reduce shame for those who have lost someone, or for people who have struggled themselves. This openness can make the burden lighter, and we hope to help prevent more lives from being lost. 

For many years, there has been a global movement to shift how we speak about suicide. Legislation has been passed in many countries so that suicide is no longer treated as a crime. We no longer say someone “committed suicide” – a phrase that suggests an offence or a sin. Instead, we speak of suicide as a health issue that deserves compassion, understanding, and prevention. 

Still, not all countries have made this change. Around the world, advocates continue to campaign for new laws, new language, and new ways of talking, because changing the narrative is a powerful step toward saving lives. 

Can we stretch this a little further? What if changing the narrative on suicide invited us to look beyond what we already know — and imagine new futures? What if we explored the many social and environmental factors that shape suicide, and directed our energy toward addressing those root causes? 

So often, what we call suicide prevention is really intervention. We focus on crisis points, spotting warning signs, stepping in to keep someone safe, or linking them quickly to medical or legal supports. These responses are vital, but they come late in the story. 

Some people say that once our only focus is on protection, we can lose connection. And yet, it is connection that is often the most powerful lifeline. 

Suicide challenges and unsettles us, intrigues and terrifies us. It draws us into searching for reasons, explanations, patterns. We pour resources into research and learn more each year about the links, loneliness, family and domestic violence, gambling, homelessness, conflict, relationship breakdowns, identity struggles, discrimination, racism, and so much more. Suicide rarely exists in isolation; it sits in the midst of many pressures and hurts. 

What if changing the narrative meant shifting from seeing suicide only as an individual problem to understanding it as a collective responsibility? One where communities, services, governments, and all of us hold a role in creating environments that foster safety, belonging, and hope. 

This is the heart of the work of the Life Promotion and Suicide Prevention FNQ Collaborative — moving the story of suicide away from silence, blame and individual pathology towards connection, community, and shared responsibility, including our public and civic responsibilities.