World Suicide Prevention Day 2023

World Suicide Prevention Day 2023 is a suicide awareness day which is held annually on 10th September. It is organised by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) with the aim of promoting worldwide action to prevent suicide. The theme for 2023 is: ‘Creating Hope Through Action’.

Thoughts about self harming can affect anyone regardless of age, culture, gender or social background and they often go hand in hand with an untreated mental health condition. It is therefore vital that people have access to the resources they need to deal with any extreme negative thought patterns that lead to suicidal ideation.

The Samaritans (samaritans.org) collates suicide statistics for the whole of the UK and Ireland and their latest figures covering the years 2019 to 2021 make for grim reading. The data shows that in 2021 there were 5219 suicides registered in England, 347 in Wales and 753 in Scotland. In Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, where figures are compiled differently and data is provisional, statistics show there were 219 suicides in Northern Ireland in 2020 and 524 suicides in the Republic of Ireland in 2019. These figures highlight the need to review suicide data over a longer period than one year — for example over three to five years or longer. This will make it possible to explore any underlying trends so that suicide prevention programmes can be better targeted. It is also important to remember that suicide is often under-reported due to the stigma associated with suicide.

World Suicide Prevention Day is a good opportunity to engage local communities in shared suicide prevention initiatives which provide support to those whose lives have been impacted by suicide.