Recommendations for reporting on suicide (Spanish, German, and French) Recommendations for reporting on suicide (Spanish, German, and French)

2011

Information

Guidelines/Recommendations
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), Annenberg Public Policy Center, Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, National Alliance on Mental Illness, New Hampshire (NAMI NH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE)

Contacts

See This Resource

This two-page fact sheet, available in Spanish, German, and French, provides research-based recommendations for reporting on suicide. Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide is available for free. It can be downloaded from http://reportingonsuicide.org/.

Program Objectives:

Media that implement the recommendations will:

  1. Reduce the type of language in reporting that may increase suicide risk of contagion.
  2. Reflect in their reporting an understanding of the causes of suicide, its relationship to mental illness, and the effectiveness of treatments.
  3. Avoid reporting myths and misunderstandings about suicide.
  4. Better understand the questions to ask and angles to pursue when reporting about suicide.