Home SPRC > Awareness and Safe Messaging

Materials on how to craft and promote suicide prevention messages and a few examples of awareness materials. Materials on stigma and examples of awareness campaigns can be found in the Addressing Stigma and Awareness Campaigns sub-categories listed in the left column.

Adding power to our voices: A framing guide for communicating about injury
URL: http://www.cdc.gov/injury/CDCFramingGuide-a.pdf
Includes framing theory, message development techniques and vehicles for explaining public health statistics.
Show Details
 
Child survivors of suicide: A guidebook for those who care for them
Physical Location/Acquisition Information: Available for $10.00/copy from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention online store.
URL: http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=shop.productDetails&product_id=B157BA8B-E4F7-BBE9-EA7A81D1FA6268D4
Also available in Spanish. This 20 page paperback guide offers guidance for family members, educators and others who interact with young survivors.
Show Details
 
Dealing With Suicide-related Curriculum
URL: http://www.sptsnj.org/educators/suicide-curriculum.html
This information sheet provides guidance on dealing with suicide themes in traditional coursework, such as the play Romeo and Juliet, and how to manage the emotions of students who may have been personally affected by suicide.
Show Details
 
Developing and marketing your suicide prevention message: A strategic approach (Presentation)
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/strategicmessaging.pdf
This presentation describes social marketing principles, provides a strategic planning model, discusses what is unique about suicide prevention messages, and examines some examples of messaging developed by colleges and universities.
Show Details
 
Guide to engaging the media in suicide prevention
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/media_guide.pdf
This 44-page guide teaches you how to serve as an effective media spokesperson and how to generate media coverage to create awareness of suicide prevention. The publication describes how to use television, radio, and print media and provides examples of press releases, media advisories, pitch letters, op-eds and more. It also gives tips for identifying appropriate media outlets, creating up-to-date media lists, and tracking your results.
Show Details
 
Guidelines for selecting a video on youth suicide prevention
URL: http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=236&name=DLFE-139.pdf
This brochure recommends how to choose an instructional video as one part of a comprehensive suicide prevention curriculum for teaching basic skills and concepts to youth. The Best Practices Registry (BPR) is mentioned as a resource for selecting a youth suicide prevention curriculum.
Show Details
 
Ideas for Suicide Prevention Week
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/spweek.pdf
A list of 14 program and activity ideas to perform for suicide prevention week or anytime throughout the year.
Show Details
 
Is myth-busting counterproductive?
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/mythposter.pdf
A poster presented at the 2008 American Association of Suicidology (AAS) Conference. The purpose of this poster is to (1) highlight recent research on the possible negative impact of 'myth-busting' as a communication method, (2) suggest recommendations for suicide prevention materials, and (3) provide recommendations for future research.
Show Details
 
Lifeline online postvention manual
Physical Location/Acquisition Information: Case examples are available by emailing Jessica Hass at JHaas@mhaofnyc.org
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/LifelineOnlinePostventionManual.pdf
The recommendations in this manual detail how to safely memorialize someone who has died by suicide. These guidelines can be applied to online memorials and online messages about the deceased.
Show Details
 
Links in Spanish
URL: http://www.helppromotehope.com/documents/Spanish_Materials.pdf
This sheet lists links to public information materials in Spanish language on mental health and suicide, including two specific to suicide among adolescents: âUnderstanding Suicide: The Basicsâ and âSuicide Prevention: A Parent and Teen Guide to Recognizing Suicide Warning Signs.â
Show Details
 
The nomenclature of suicidology: What's in a name? (SPRC Discussion Series)
URL: http://www.sprc.org/traininginstitute/disc_series/disc_7.asp
A presentation on the use of terminology when discussing suicide and suicidal behavior. The Research to Practice Webinar webpage contains an author biography, PowerPoint slides, and an audio file of the discussion.
Show Details
 
Parent Information Sheets
URL: http://www.sptsnj.org/parents/
This webpage, which includes seven multiple media links, relates stories of parents who have lost a child to suicide and provides guidance to parents on how to talk to their teens about suicide, suicide contagion, or the death of a friend by suicide.
Show Details
 
Picture this: Depression and suicide prevention
URL: http://www.eiconline.org/resources/publications/z_picturethis/Disorder.pdf
Picture This is a guide for creators in the entertainment industry which addresses issues within the realm of depression and suicide prevention, as identified by mental health experts, advocates, policy-makers, and others working to improve public awareness about and reduce instances of depression and suicide.
Show Details
 
Response to the myth that talking about suicide will "plant the idea"
URL: http://www.sptsnj.org/educators/talking-myth.html
This brief essay summarizes evidence supporting the position that talking about suicide does not increase risk but serves to prevent it.
Show Details
 
Safe and effective messaging for suicide prevention
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/SafeMessagingfinal.pdf
A 2-page document that offers evidence-based recommendations for creating safe and effective messages to raise public awareness that suicide is a serious and preventable public health problem is now available. Contains Dos and Donts for creating public messages for suicide prevention.
Show Details
 
School memorials after suicide: Helpful or harmful?
URL: http://www.suicideinfo.ca/csp/assets/alert54.pdf
This issue brief draws from the research to provide guidance for responding to suicide in a manner that supports grieving while mitigating contagion.
Show Details
 
Strategic communication planning: A workbook for Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act state, tribal, and campus grantees
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/GLSWorkbook.pdf
This manual uses the 8-Step Communication Planning Model to provide a blueprint for site-specific, actionable communication plans. The model is based on the theory and practice of social marketing, which adapts commercial marketing techniques.
Show Details
 
Suicide awareness event resource kit
URL: http://www.sprc.org/library/event_kit/index.asp
A logistics planning guide and general and state specific materials to help you organize, plan and conduct a successful event to raise awareness about suicide and suicide prevention. The kit contains sample publicity materials, state and national data sheets, and legislative information.
Show Details
 
Suicide clusters and contagion: Recognizing and addressing suicide contagion are essential to successful suicide postvention efforts
URL: http://www.nasponline.org/resources/principals/Suicide_Clusters_NASSP_Sept_%2009.pdf
This article describes the problem of contagion and the ways that administrators can act to prevent it by establishing a crisis team, recognizing and monitoring at-risk students, and mobilizing community-wide responses.
Show Details
 
Suicide prevention: Information for individuals and families
URL: http://www.ombudmhmr.state.mn.us/reports/suicidepreventionbrochure8x14updated.pdf
Brochure that contains 12 prevention tips geared toward individuals who have suicidal thoughts and for their loved ones. Includes a space to write in local/personal emergency phone numbers.
Show Details
 
Understand Suicide: Outlining Basic Characteristics
URL: http://www.sptsnj.org/educators/understanding-suicide.html
This information sheet provides a definition of suicide and five points discussing reasons why students can consider suicide as a way to alleviate emotional pain.
Show Details
 
Understanding Student Reactions to the Anniversary Date of a Peer's Death
URL: http://www.sptsnj.org/educators/anniversary-date-reactions.pdf
This fact sheet discusses how developmental characteristics of teens can make them especially vulnerable on the anniversary of a peer's death and how adults can prepare for and respond to their needs and reactions.
Show Details
 
When it seems like there is no hope, there is help
URL: http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/Materials/Default.aspx
This brochure lists the warning signs for suicide and has the Lifeline phone number. It also has two wallet-sized cards with this same information that you can tear off and put in your wallet. Also available in Spanish. Look under Wallet Cards for .pdf and customizable versions
Show Details