We need to promote health literacy for suicide

Fifty percent or more of those who die by suicide do not seek help prior to their deadly suicide action. This equates to over 400,000 individuals out of some 800,000 suicides worldwide each year, despite decades of national suicide prevention programs offering help to persons at risk of suicide. Traditionally, suicidal behavior has been conceptualized as a mental health disorder. In a medical model we expect people who suffer from problems with mental health to seek help, similar to somatic problems. The fact is that they don’t seek help. I contend that the medical approach to the suicidal individual is a misconception. We need models of suicide that are meaningful to people. It is not the depression but the person who acts in an emotional crisis. We need to promote suicide health literacy as a public health issue. For this, we need to develop novel channels to disseminate person-centered models of suicide, for instance by using digital technology, particularly for young people. The presentation will describe promising new projects.