Kimberly Torguson, Associate Director of Communications
September kicks off national suicide prevention month! This month serves to share helpful suicide prevention resources, highlight prevention successes, promote hope, and encourage help-seeking behaviors. This month, Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA), and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) in collaboration with the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (and many other national organization’s) are encouraging everybody’s involvement to help elevate the important role we all have in preventing this preventable public health issue.
“To save lives and prevent suicide in this country requires coordinated and comprehensive prevention efforts involving government agencies, communities, organizations, families, and individuals,” said Kim Torguson, Associate Director of Communications. “It requires commitment and buy-in from partners and stakeholders across various settings and sectors in order to effectively coordinate and implement suicide prevention efforts aimed at reducing the annual suicide rate 20 percent by 2025.”
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) is the public-private partnership focused on advancing national suicide prevention efforts. In 2012 the Action Alliance, along with then-U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, released the revised National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP), which emphasizes the role every American can play in protecting their friends, family members, and colleagues from suicide. It also provides guidance for schools, businesses, health systems, clinicians, and many other sectors, taking into account nearly a decade of research and other advancements in the field since the previous strategy was published.
“The Action Alliance’s unique role as the public-private partnership to advancing the NSSP and focused on identifying and leveraging opportunities for collaboration, and avoiding duplicating the efforts of partners in the field, said Kim Torguson. “As it says in the NSSP, we all have a role to play in saving lives. The Action Alliance and our partners are working together this month, which is National Suicide Prevention Month, to highlight simple actions anyone, anywhere can take to create a community of support that can encourage people in crisis to get the help they deserve.”
“The Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA), is proud to be partnering with the Action Alliance in September to highlight the role we can all take in helping someone feel less alone, less helpless, less hopeless,” said Susan Weinstein, Co-Executive Director, FFDA. “We are partnering with Action Alliance’s 250+ partners to educate the public about the importance of being there for others.”
In September and during National Suicide Prevention Week (Sept. 11-16), the Action Alliance and its partners are uniting to inform the public about simple actions that can support someone in crisis and potentially help save a life. The Action Alliance is asking organizations to step up to educate the public about the role anyone, anywhere can play in being there for someone who is struggling or in crisis.
Interested in getting involved in this collective effort?
- Sign up for the #NSPW Thunderclap campaign
- Promote the hashtag #NSPW when posting social media messages about being there
- Visit (and share) our website to access information about our partner’s campaigns focused on being there for others
- Post our shareable social media icons on your social media channel
- Publicize your suicide prevention event or activity on our website
- Highlight your partnership by being added to our partner page.
“If we want to move the needle on suicide prevention, we know we must collaborate, unit, and act – in September and all year round,” said Kim Torguson.
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