Beyond Prevention: Building Resilience, Connection, and Support
Introduction
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2026), “more than 720 000 people die due to suicide every year,” making suicide “the third leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds” worldwide. These figures show the scale of the issue, but they also raise a broader question: What does suicide prevention actually mean?
Suicide is influenced by multiple and interacting factors, therefor prevention cannot be understood only as what happens when someone is already in crisis. It also involves understanding suicidal behaviour, reducing barriers to seeking help, strengthening connections and support, and creating conditions that can contribute to individual and collective resilience.
Understanding Suicidal Behaviour
Suicidal behaviour comprises a broader behavioural spectrum. It can include suicidal ideation, preparatory acts, suicide attempts, and suicide (Crosby et al., 2011).
The WHO states that “many factors can contribute to suicide,” including social, cultural, biological, psychological, and environmental factors (WHO, 2026). This means that there is no single experience that explains why someone may reach a point of suicidal crisis. Different circumstances can have varying levels of impact on a person's life, and their relevance can change over time.
The WHO also notes that many suicides occur “impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses,” including financial problems, relationship disputes, chronic pain, and illness (WHO, 2026).
Understanding this complexity changes the way we think about prevention. If there is no single cause, there cannot be a single solution. Prevention therefore needs to include different forms of support and intervention, from reducing immediate risks to strengthening the factors that help people cope and seek help.
But understanding the complexity of suicide is only one part of prevention. We also need to consider what can make it harder for someone to ask for help in the first place.
The stigma of silence
For many people, suicide is surrounded by fear, stigma, misconceptions, and uncertainty about what can or should be said. The WHO identifies stigma surrounding suicide and mental health as an important barrier to seeking support. When people fear being judged, misunderstood, or treated differently, they may be less likely to speak openly about what they are experiencing (WHO, 2026).
Silence can therefore become part of the problem. But changing this does not simply mean encouraging people to “talk more” about suicide. It means creating conditions for safer, informed, and more compassionate conversations. If people do not have the language to describe what they are experiencing, or if they expect judgement when they speak, reaching out for support can become more difficult.
This is why prevention also involves challenging the narratives that surround suicide: the assumptions we make, the language we use, and the way we communicate about people experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviours (International Association for Suicide Prevention [IASP], 2026).
Breaking stigma is not about making suicide an ordinary or casual topic. It is about making it possible to discuss responsibly and without shame. Furthermore, changing the conversation is not only an individual responsibility, it involves the communities, organizations, and institutions that shape how people understand and respond to suicide.
Changing the Narrative
In 2026, the President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) stated:
Changing the narrative asks all of us; individuals, communities, organisations and governments, to engage in open and honest discussion about suicide and suicidal behaviour, so that we can break down barriers, raise awareness and build cultures of understanding and support. (IASP, 2026)
This statement shifts the focus from simply raising awareness to changing the way suicide is understood and discussed. It also emphasizes that different parts of society have different roles to play in prevention.
For individuals, changing the narrative can mean learning how to talk about suicide without judgement or sensationalism. For communities, it can mean creating spaces where people can speak about emotional distress and feel supported rather than isolated. For organizations, it can mean communicating responsibly, providing appropriate resources, and knowing when to connect people with professional support. For governments and institutions, it means developing policies, services, surveillance systems, and comprehensive prevention strategies (WHO, 2021).
The WHO similarly emphasizes the importance of multisectoral collaboration. Its LIVE LIFE toolkit guides countries in implementing suicide prevention strategies and identifies multisectoral collaboration, and awareness-raising and advocacy among its core pillars (WHO, 2021).
Changing the narrative, therefore, is not simply about finding better words. It is about creating a culture in which understanding can replace stigma, conversation can replace silence, and awareness can lead to meaningful support.
From awareness to action
Knowing that suicide is a public health issue does not necessarily tell someone what to do when a friend says they are struggling. Similarly, knowing that mental health matters does not automatically provide people with the skills to recognize distress or connect someone with appropriate support. This is where prevention needs to move from awareness to action.
One practical framework comes from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which identifies five actions for helping someone who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts: Ask. Be There. Help Keep Them Safe. Help Them Connect. Follow Up (NIMH, 2024).
Ask: Asking directly about suicide can create an opportunity for someone to talk about what they are experiencing. It means approaching the conversation openly and without judgement, rather than avoiding the subject because it feels uncomfortable.
Be There: Being there means listening and offering a person your attention and presence. It does not require having the right answers or solving the situation. Sometimes, feeling heard and taken seriously can be an important first step toward accepting support.
Help Keep Them Safe: When someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts, safety becomes an immediate priority. This can involve helping them move away from situations or access to things that could put them at risk and seeking additional support when necessary. It is important to remember that one person should not be expected to manage a crisis alone.
Help Them Connect: Support becomes stronger when a person is connected to other sources of help. This may include a trusted person, a mental health professional, a healthcare service, or a crisis resource. The goal is not for one person to become the solution, but to help create a bridge toward appropriate support.
Follow Up: Support should not necessarily end after the first conversation. Following up can communicate that the person has not been forgotten and that their well-being continues to matter. A simple message or check-in can help maintain connection and make it easier for someone to reach out again.
Together, these actions illustrate an important principle: people do not need to become mental health professionals in order to provide meaningful support. They can ask. They can listen. They can take someone's experience seriously. They can help someone connect with appropriate professional or crisis support. And they can continue to check in (NIMH, 2024).
At the same time, supporting someone does not mean taking responsibility for treating their mental health or managing a crisis alone. Connection can be part of prevention, but it is not a substitute for professional care.
This distinction leads to a broader question: if connection can help people access support, what role does connection itself play in prevention?
Connection for prevention
Prevention is often discussed in terms of risk: identifying warning signs, reducing access to lethal means, or responding to a crisis. These interventions are essential. But prevention can also involve strengthening the factors that help people navigate difficult moments before they become overwhelming. One of these factors is connection.
Connection can take many forms. It can mean having someone who listens without judgement, feeling that we belong to a family, friendship group, community, school, workplace, or other social environment, or knowing where to turn when we need help.
These connections can provide emotional support, practical assistance, and opportunities to seek help when coping becomes difficult. They can also create a sense that a person does not have to navigate difficult experiences entirely on their own.
However, connection should not be presented as a simple solution to suicide. People can experience suicidal thoughts even when they are surrounded by others, and social connection alone cannot replace professional or crisis support. Instead, connection can be understood as one part of a broader network of protective factors that may support people during periods of distress.
This changes the question we ask about prevention. Rather than asking only: "how do we respond when someone is at risk?” we can also ask: “what helps people remain connected to others when life becomes difficult?”
This question moves prevention beyond the individual. It invites us to consider families, friendships, communities, schools, workplaces, and other social spaces where people spend their lives. It also raises another possibility: connection does not happen in isolation. It happens when you have the courage to overcome silence.
The places where people live, work, study, move, rest, and interact can shape opportunities for connection and wellbeing. This is where the environment becomes another dimension of the prevention conversation.
The environment around us
Our mental health is not shaped only by what happens within us. The environments in which we live, move, and connect can also influence our well-being.
Research on greenspace and suicide-related outcomes offers one example of this broader perspective. A systematic review found protective associations between greenspace exposure and suicide mortality, self-harm, and suicidal ideation (Bolanis et al., 2024). A protective association means that people exposed to more or better greenspace tended to show lower levels of suicide-related outcomes compared with those with less greenspace exposure. It does not mean that greenspace directly prevents suicide or that a causal relationship has been established.
Protective associations were reported in 64% of the studies examining suicide mortality, 60% of those examining self-harm, and 67% of those examining suicidal ideation. At the same time, 36% of the included studies did not find a statistically significant association, showing that the evidence remains inconclusive (Bolanis et al., 2024).
So, what might explain these findings?
Several possible pathways have been proposed. Greenspaces may help reduce stress and restore attention, encourage physical activity and social connection, and reduce exposure to environmental stressors such as heat, noise, and air pollution. However, the mechanisms connecting these factors specifically to suicide-related outcomes are still not fully understood (Bolanis et al., 2024).
The important point is not that nature is a solution to suicide. Rather, this research encourages us to think about the conditions surrounding people. If opportunities for movement, connection, participation, and access to supportive spaces can contribute to well-being, then prevention can also involve thinking about the environments we create.
From individual resilience to resilient societies
At this point, the question “What does suicide prevention actually mean?” has moved beyond a single intervention.
It means understanding suicidal behaviour and its complexity. It means reducing stigma and creating safer conversations. It means knowing how to respond when someone is struggling. It means strengthening connection and access to support. And it means considering the social and physical environments in which people live.
Taken together, these perspectives suggest that resilience should not be understood solely as an individual's ability to cope. Resilience can also be supported by the relationships, communities, institutions, and environments surrounding us.
At the individual level, prevention involves strengthening socio-emotional skills and knowing when and how to seek help. At the community level, it involves building belonging and developing the capacity to respond when someone is struggling. At the institutional level, it involves accessible services, responsible and coordinated prevention strategies. At the environmental level, it involves considering how the spaces where people live, move, connect, and spend time may contribute to well-being (WHO, 2021).
The WHO's LIVE LIFE toolkit reflects this broader understanding. Its core pillars include situation analysis, multisectoral collaboration, awareness-raising and advocacy, capacity-building, financing, and surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation (WHO, 2021).
This is important because suicide prevention is not the responsibility of the health sector alone. Different sectors and levels of society can contribute to creating conditions that support prevention.
A resilient society is not one in which nobody experiences distress. It is one that has the capacity to respond when distress occurs. It has reliable information. It has accessible support. It has communities that can recognize and respond to suffering. It has institutions that coordinate their efforts. And it creates environments that support people's ability to connect, participate, and feel that they belong.
Conclusion
So, what does suicide prevention actually mean?
It means more than responding when a crisis occurs. It means understanding, because suicidal behaviour is complex and influenced by multiple factors. It means changing the narrative, because stigma and silence can make it harder for people to seek support. It means taking action, because awareness needs to be accompanied by practical ways of responding when someone is struggling. It means connection, because people need relationships, communities, and pathways to support. And it means considering the environment, because the conditions surrounding people can also shape opportunities for connection and well-being.
None of these elements is a solution on its own. Together, however, they allow us to understand prevention as something broader than crisis intervention: a collective effort to create conditions in which people can seek help, remain connected, and receive support when they need it.
Perhaps prevention can begin with something as simple as a conversation. It can begin with knowing how to ask, how to listen, and where to connect someone with help. It can also begin with communities and institutions asking what they can change so that support is easier to find and people do not have to face difficult moments alone.
Moving beyond prevention does not mean leaving prevention behind. It means understanding prevention as something we build together.
Need help? Find support
If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress, struggling with their mental health, or experiencing suicidal thoughts, reaching out for support can be an important first step. Support can look different depending on what someone needs, from information and mental health care to specialized crisis support.
Below are some resources that can help people find support in different parts of the world. Services, availability, languages, and eligibility vary by country.
Mental health support
Latin America : Selia offers online psychological therapy and psychiatry, connecting users with certified professionals in Spanish. It also provides wellbeing tools and resources.
Europe : Mental Health Europe provides information and resources related to mental health across Europe and works to promote mental health and the rights of people experiencing mental health difficulties.
Africa : Mental health services vary considerably across the continent. Find A Helpline can help users identify available mental health and crisis services in their country.
Asia : In India, Tele-MANAS provides a national mental health support service. For other countries across Asia, Find A Helpline provides country-specific options.
Oceania : In Australia, Beyond Blue provides mental health information, online resources, peer support, and access to qualified counsellors 24/7.
Crisis and suicide support
If someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts or feels they may be in immediate danger, mental health platforms and general wellbeing resources should not replace crisis services or emergency care.
Find A Helpline is a global directory that helps people find verified crisis and emotional-support helplines by country.
Some examples include:
Americas: In the United States, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides crisis support by phone, text, and online chat, including Spanish-language support.
Europe: Samaritans provides free emotional support in the United Kingdom and Ireland through 116 123.
Africa: In South Africa, SADAG provides suicide and mental health support services.
Asia: Country-specific crisis services, including those in Japan, China, and other Asian countries, can be found through Find A Helpline.
Oceania: In Australia, Lifeline Australia provides 24/7 crisis support.
If there is an immediate risk of harm, contact your local emergency service or go to the nearest emergency department.
These resources are provided as starting points for finding appropriate support. They are not a substitute for professional assessment or emergency care when someone is at immediate risk.
References
Bolanis, D., Vergunst, F., Mavoa, S., Schmelefske, E., Khoury, B., Turecki, G., Orri, M., & Geoffroy, M.-C. (2024). Association between greenspace exposure and suicide-related outcomes across the lifespan: A systematic review. Science of the Total Environment, 906, 167451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167451
Crosby, A. E., Ortega, L., & Melanson, C. (2011). Self-directed violence surveillance: Uniform definitions and recommended data elements, version 1.0. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
International Association for Suicide Prevention. (2026, August 4). President’s message.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2024). 5 action steps to help someone having thoughts of suicide. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.
World Health Organization. (2021). LIVE LIFE: An implementation guide for suicide prevention in countries. https://doi.org/10.2471/9789240026629
World Health Organization. (2026, August 28). Suicide.
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