Suicide Prevention Week - How to talk about suicide

Every year in early February, Association québécoise de prévention du suicide encourages you to get involved by raising awareness in your community and among your loved ones and colleagues. To take part in Suicide Prevention Week 2023, go to DareToTalkAboutSuicide.com.

Objectives

Raise awareness about the scope and complexity of the problem and ways of reducing it, and engage the public and decision makers;
Improve the promotion of available help and resources, including www.suicide.ca and the 1‑866‑APPELLE hotline;
Normalize asking for help, particularly among men, who are less likely to seek help and have higher suicide rates;
Encourage talking about suicide openly and safely. Provide loved ones, people in distress, and the public as well as service providers with guidance on safe ways of discussing it.

TALKING ABOUT SUICIDE SAVES LIVES

Speaking up is critical to preventing suicide. To reduce suicide rates, it’s important to open up both a one‑on‑one and a collective dialogue on the topic. Suicide is already covered extensively in the media and features prominently in fiction and on social platforms—so you need to know the safest ways to talk about it.

Whether it is to express distress or find comfort, or ask a loved one who is not doing well if there is any way you can help them and if they are thinking about suicide, or whether it is to raise awareness in the community, there are words you can use to talk about suicide in a preventive and safe way. There are also ways to learn how to listen. Thus, speaking up not only has many benefits, but also makes for a stronger safety net.

Ways to mark the event

Want to help out with prevention? There are simple things you can do:

Visit daretotalkaboutsuicide.com to discover the 2023 campaign;
Hand out “You’re important to me” pins to the people around you to let them know how much they mean to you;
Share prevention messages on your social networks #PreventionSuicide;
Put up awareness posters and hand out bookmarks to promote prevention messages and actions as well as resources, including the Quebec suicide prevention hotline at 1‑866‑APPELLE (277‑3553), www.suicide.ca and the services of suicide prevention centres;
Organize or support a mobilization activity.