Suicide Prevention, Intervention and Response

Suicide is a major public health problem that has far-reaching personal, social, and economic implications. Despite increased awareness, research, funding, and national agendas, in the United States, suicide deaths have been rising, without pause, since 1999. Between 1999 and 2018, the suicide rate increased 35%. Deaths by suicide outnumber those by both homicide and motor vehicle accidents.

For every suicide death, we lose the unique gifts of the individual who has died. But its ripple effect has a broad impact across space and time—every suicide creates dozens of loss survivors, who suffer immense pain and complex grief and are at greater risk of suicide themselves.

Preventing suicide requires everyone’s commitment, from the individuals struggling with their own thoughts of suicide up to the systems and communities that support them.