Resources for World Suicide Prevention Day 2025
Wednesday, 10th September, marks World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), a day where our community comes together with one voice, united in our mission to reduce lives lost to suicide and self-harm.
Each year, we come together to honour those who have been lost and those who carry the pain of loss or the struggles of living. Together, we reaffirm our dedication to learn from those we've lost and the many lives we may have saved. While WSPD is a powerful moment to raise awareness, suicide prevention is something we must commit to every day, all year round, to build a culture of prevention.
Before reading the blog:
This report mentions topics related to self-harm and suicide which may potentially lead to distress. Before you read the guidance, check in with yourself. How are you feeling today? If you were negatively impacted or affected, who would you contact for support? Support is available from Samaritans, for free, 24/7. Phone 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org.uk.
Below, we’ve highlighted a selection of resources from across the suicide prevention community to help individuals, teams, and organisations engage with this year’s theme and contribute to changing the narrative on suicide.
We encourage you to explore, share, and use these resources to support safer conversations, build compassionate responses, and create spaces where people feel seen, heard, and supported.
Changing the Narrative on Suicide - Tips for talking about suicide and self-harm with care, clarity and compassion
This year’s World Suicide Prevention Day theme, “Changing the Narrative on Suicide” calls on us to start the conversation
and know how to move toward safety with the person.
Language plays a powerful role in shaping understanding, reducing stigma, and creating safer spaces.
Talking about suicide and self-harm isn’t easy, but it’s essential. The language we use can help people feel seen, heard, and supported. We have developed a resource that offers practical, person-centred language tips to support safer conversations around suicide and self-harm - using words that are respectful, sensitive, and stigma-reducing. For many across the suicide prevention and mental health community, these principles will be familiar, but this guide serves as a reminder of best practice and a tool to support consistent, compassionate communication across our work and wider networks.
Our understanding is always evolving, and so is how we use language. There’s always more to learn, ways to improve how we talk about suicide and self-harm, and ways of improving practice. Lived experience research tells us that the words we use matter. Compassionate, non-judgmental language can help someone feel understood, reduce stigma, and encourage connection and help-seeking.
We continue to value the voices of those personally affected by suicide and self-harm, whose insights help shape safer, more supportive conversations.
By engaging in open and honest conversations, we help break down barriers and create cultures of understanding and support. Every conversation – no matter how small – contributes to changing the narrative and building a more connected, compassionate society.
Why we continue this work and why it is needed
More than 720,000 people die by suicide every year. For each suicide, there are an estimated 20 suicide attempts (Source:World Health Organisation). Each one of these deaths represents a person in despair, a life lost, and families, friends, workplaces, schools and communities impacted by their passing.
It is for those we have lost, those who carry the pain of loss or the struggles of living, that we do the work we do. It is for them that we take this opportunity on World Suicide Prevention Day to refresh our commitment to preventing suicide.
What these statistics don’t show is how many lives have been saved through compassionate conversations, timely interventions, and the tireless work of individuals and organisations across the UK and beyond.
Progress has been made, but suicide remains a leading cause of death, and too many people still struggle in silence. There are gaps in access to support, disparities across communities and stigma that continues to prevent people from seeking help.
We need to keep building awareness, improving services and equipping people with the skills to respond compassionately and effectively. Suicide prevention is not a one-day effort; it’s a long-term commitment that requires all of us to work together.
Conversations save lives
World Suicide Prevention Day reminds us that open, honest, and compassionate conversations about suicide and suicidal thoughts can save lives.
By talking openly, we can:
• Break down barriers
• Reduce stigma
• Raise awareness
• Encourage help-seeking
• Build understanding and support
• Create safe spaces for people to talk, be heard, and feel supported
Whether you're an individual, an organisation, the government, or part of a community group, we all have a role to play.
Suicide prevention is everyone’s business.
WSPD resources to support you and your workplace
While the day is a moment to reflect, it’s also a time to take action. Below, we’ve shared a selection of resources that might be helpful for you, your team, or your workplace to raise awareness and get involved:
Resources from the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)
We’re supporting IASP to change the narrative on suicide, this World Suicide Prevention Day.
They are calling on everyone to engage in open, honest, and compassionate conversations about suicide and suicidal behaviour.
You can get involved by:
- Download resources from the IASP website – you’ll find a range of posters, graphics, outreach briefs, and events. You can also download this campaign pack filled with useful information and resources on how you can engage with World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) in 2025.
- Joining in the conversation on social media using #WSPD, #StartTheConversation, #ChangeTheNarrative
Samaritans WSPD campaign
This World Suicide Prevention Day, Samaritans are sharing one important message:
“Suicide is not inevitable. You can interrupt someone’s suicidal thoughts. You could save a life. If you think someone might be suicidal, take action, interrupt their thoughts and show them you care.”
Every 90 minutes, someone in the UK or Ireland dies by suicide, and 1 in 4 people have experienced suicidal thoughts (Source: Samaritans).
Samaritans’ campaign, co-created with people who have lived experience, highlights how timely, compassionate action can make a difference.
- 60% said their suicidal thoughts had been interrupted by someone close to them, like a friend or family member
- 14% said their suicidal thoughts had been interrupted by a stranger or someone they didn’t know
Consider what you are doing to build your team’s skills and confidence to prevent suicide and self-harm
At Storm Skills Training CIC, we have over 30 years of experience developing and delivering high-quality, evidence-based suicide and self-harm assessment training.
Our work is focused on person-centred conversations – ensuring people have the skills, knowledge and confidence to go beyond starting a conversation and work towards safety with someone in distress.
We work with individuals and teams to build the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to explore distress compassionately and effectively.
Our training focuses on understanding what’s creating a person’s distress, how it’s impacting the person, including thoughts and acts of suicide and self-harm and how to respond through meaningful information sharing, support and safety planning.
Our training goes beyond knowledge building and theory - over 50% of course time is dedicated to skills development, including active observation, skills practice, self-reflection and feedback.
We believe building confidence is just as vital as gaining knowledge. You’ll leave a Storm Skills Training course not only more informed, but also more confident in your ability to respond with compassion and a person-centred approach.
Version 5 of our training package incorporates the latest research, evidence, best practices and lived experience insights, and aligns with:
- NICE Guideline (NG225) – “Self-harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence”
- Health Education England (HEE) Self-harm and Suicide Prevention Competence Framework.
Our courses support people from all backgrounds, from experienced professionals to those with no formal training who want to better understand how to offer support, including:
- Anyone who works in a role where they want to better understand how to respond to people who may be vulnerable to self-harm or suicide: Whether you’re working in education, retail, hospitality, construction, HR, customer service, or any other field, we offer a course level that fits your role, experience and motivation to support others.
- Mental health specialists: psychologists, psychiatrists, mental Health Nurses, Social Workers
- Healthcare professionals: GPs, Nurses, Pharmacists, Counsellors, Psychotherapists, CBT Therapists
- Social care and community support: Social Workers, Community Support Workers, Case Managers, Youth Workers, Mentors
- Crisis intervention and rehabilitation: Crisis Support Workers, Rehabilitation Counsellors, Addiction Specialists
- Criminal justice professionals: Probation Officers, Facility Staff
- Third-sector and volunteer organisations: Charity Volunteers, Community Outreach Coordinators
- Other professionals with safeguarding responsibilities or those working with complexity and vulnerability.
If you’d like to explore training options, please visit our training page or reach out to us - we would love to hear from you. You can email enquiries@stormskillstraining.com or call us on +44 (0)748 7494 353.
Share the collective impact of Storm Skills Training this WSPD & help us to save more lives from suicide
We’d love to hear how Storm Skills Training has made a difference, whether it’s influenced:
- You personally
- Your professional practice
- Your organisation or team
- Someone you’ve worked with
Your feedback helps us show the difference Storm Skills Training makes, not just for individuals, but across teams, services, and organisations. Together, we can demonstrate the collective impact of our work. By sharing your words and experiences, you contribute to our success, and it could inspire others to join our community, expand our reach, and potentially help save more lives. Sharing your experience will only take around 5 minutes. Please visit: www.stormskillstraining.com/feedback
If you're posting this World Suicide Prevention Day, or any other day, we’d love to hear from you. Tag us or use the hashtag #StormSkillsTraining to help spread the word. Sharing your experience online not only highlights the importance of suicide prevention but also encourages others to get involved. You’ll find links to our social media platforms on our feedback page.
Finding support for yourself or others
If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out. Support is available and you don’t have to face it alone.
Unless it says otherwise, their contact details are open 24 hours a day, every day.
In the UK
Samaritans
Email: jo@samaritans.org | Phone: 116 123 | Visit: samaritans.org
NHS 111
Phone: 111 or in a life-threatening emergency call 999.
Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)
Phone: 0800 58 58 58 – 5pm to midnight every day | Visit: Webchat page
Papyrus – prevention of young suicide HOPELINE247
Phone: 0800 068 41 41 | Text: 07860 039967 | Email: pat@papyrus-uk.org
Shout 85258 (text line)
Text: SHOUT to 85258 | Email: info@giveusashout.org
International
International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP)
Visit: findahelpline.com/i/iasp
Final thoughts
World Suicide Prevention Day is a moment to pause, reflect and recommit. It’s a day to honour those we’ve lost, support those who are struggling and take action to prevent future deaths. Let’s continue to build cultures of prevention, not just on 10th September, but every day.
Let’s talk. Let’s listen. Let’s change the narrative.
