World Suicide Prevention Day: 10th Sept 2017

a. "Light a candle near a Window"

b. "Preventing Suicide: Reaching Out and Saving Lives"

c. "Connect, Communicate, Care"

d. "Take a Minute, Change a Life"

 

World Suicide Prevention Day is observed on September 10 each year to promote worldwide action to prevent suicides.

Various events and activities are held during this occasion to raise awareness that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death.

World Suicide Prevention Day gives organizations, government agencies and individuals a chance to promote awareness about suicide, mental illnesses associated with suicide, as well as suicide prevention.

Organizations such as the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and World Health Organization (WHO) play a key role in promoting this event.

Activities for World Suicide Prevention Day:

• The launch of new government initiatives to prevent suicide.
• Conferences, open days, educational seminars or public lectures.
• Media programs promoting suicide awareness and prevention.
• Memorial services or candlelight ceremonies to remember those who died from suicide.
• Organizing cultural or spiritual events, fairs or exhibitions.
• Launches of publications about suicide awareness and prevention.
• Training courses about suicide and depression awareness.

World Suicide Prevention Day: Know More

• World Suicide Prevention Day, which first started in 2003, is annually held on September 10 each year as an IASP initiative.
• WHO co-sponsors this event.

World Suicide Prevention Day aims to:

• Raise awareness that suicide is preventable.
• Improve education about suicide.
• Spread information about suicide awareness.
• Decrease stigmatization regarding suicide.
• WHO and IASP work with governments and other partners to ensure that suicide is no longer stigmatized, criminalized or penalized.
• WHO’s role is to build political action and leadership to develop national responses to prevent suicide, strengthen national planning capacity to establish the core building blocks of such a national response, and build the national capacities to implement these responses.
• In 2011 an estimated 40 countries held awareness events to mark the occasion.
• The United Nations issued 'National Policy for Suicide Prevention' in the 1990s which some countries use as a basis for their suicide policies.

Themes

2003	"Suicide Can Be Prevented!"
2004	"Saving Lives, Restoring Hope"
2005	"Prevention of Suicide is Everybody's Business"
2006	"With Understanding New Hope”
2007	"Suicide prevention across the Life Span"
2008	"Think Globally, Plan Nationally, Act Locally"
2009	"Suicide Prevention in Different Cultures"
2010	"Families, Community Systems and Suicide"
2011	"Preventing Suicide in Multicultural Societies"
2012	"Suicide Prevention across the Globe: Strengthening Protective Factors and Instilling Hope"
2013	"Stigma: A Major Barrier to Suicide Prevention”
2014	"Light a candle near a Window"
2015	"Preventing Suicide: Reaching Out and Saving Lives"
2016	"Connect, Communicate, Care"
2017	"Take a Minute, Change a Life"

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