September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. It grew out of Suicide Prevention Week, which has been observed in the United States since the 1970s. Over time, the observance expanded to cover the whole of September, and today it is observed internationally.
Still, many people don’t even know something like this exists. And among those who do, many mark it by changing their profile picture on the tenth and moving on. That counts, and I do not want to dismiss it. But the effort should go beyond a one-day activity. There are thirty days in September, and the people this month is meant to protect are still here on the other twenty-nine.
When it comes to Africa, we still have a long way to go. Many organisations and NGOs are doing real work these days, running campaigns, holding events and creating the awareness that was not there ten years ago. That deserves credit. But awareness is still concentrated in a few cities and a few circles, while most people never hear any of it.
This Year’s Theme And What It Asks Of You
The theme for this year is Changing the Narrative on Suicide. It comes from the International Association for Suicide Prevention, which works alongside the World Health Organization, and it runs from 2024 through to 2026.
The themes are not chosen yearly. IASP sets one every three years, which gives everyone enough time to actually work with it rather than move on to something new before the message has landed anywhere.
What this one basically means is that the way we talk about suicide has to change. IASP describes it as shifting from a culture of silence and stigma to one of openness, understanding and support. There is also a call to action attached to it: Start the Conversation.
Also Read: What You Need To Know About World Suicide Prevention Day
What You Can Do During Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
Everybody has a role they can play. And most of it does not require money, training or a platform.
If you are just one person
1. Be honest about your own state. You cannot hold anyone up if you are barely standing yourself. So use this month to check in with yourself and get help if you need it.
2. Save the helplines in your phone right now. Not later, and do not wait until you need them first, because when the moment comes you will not be in any state to start searching. The list at the bottom of this post is a good place to start.
3. Learn what to say. This matters especially if you plan to post something on the tenth. It also means paying attention to how you talk about suicide the rest of the time, because the casual jokes and the careless words are heard by more people than you think.
4. Check on the people you have not heard from in a while. I am not talking about a group message here, and not a WhatsApp status post either. I mean sending them an actual message and genuinely asking how they are doing.
5. Learn the warning signs. You do not need to be a professional to notice when someone has gone quiet, started giving things away, or begun talking as though they will not be around. There are usually signs, so start being more attentive.
6. Ask twice, then follow up. Most people say they are fine the first time, out of habit or because they do not want to be a burden. The second question is the one that usually gets an honest answer. And if someone does open up to you, go back to them a week later. Do not check in once and never again.
7. Let people know your door is open. Say it and mean it. Tell someone this month that you would rather they came to you than kept it to themselves. People rarely assume the door is open, because they would not want to intrude with their personal issues.
8. Speak about it if you have a room to speak to. If you are a teacher, use one class this month to create awareness among your students. If you lead a fellowship or a small group, mention it during one of your regular meetings. I am not asking you to counsel anyone. I just need you to say the words out loud where somebody might need to hear them.
9. Support an organisation already doing this work. You can share their posts or volunteer if you are able to. You do not have to build anything yourself. You can simply join a community already doing the work.
10. Attend something this month related to suicide prevention awareness. It could be a webinar, a walk or a talk. You will learn something, and turning up is its own kind of support. Dinma Amadi Mental Health Foundation is hosting a suicide prevention awareness walk on the 10th of September in Abuja, Nigeria. If you live nearby, you can register to attend.
If you are an organisation or a team
1. Host a free webinar. It costs nothing but time, and it reaches people who would never attend anything in person. That way, they still get the opportunity to learn more about suicide prevention from wherever they are.
2. Organise an awareness walk. This one takes more planning, but it is worth it. It brings people into the conversation, not just those walking, but everyone who sees it happen and had no idea any of this existed. That is what public awareness actually looks like.
3. Publish something. If your organisation has a website, write a post about it. If you have an email list, send a newsletter. If you have neither, a series of posts across your social media pages does the same job.
4. Run an outreach. This could be at a school, a market, a church, or a campus. The goal is to take the conversation to where people already are, create the awareness, and let them know where support is available.
5. Tell your staff where the helplines are. Put them somewhere visible, not buried in a handbook nobody opens, so that when someone needs them, they are easy to find.
6. Train someone on your team. Most organisations do not have a mental health professional on staff, and that is understandable. But even one person who has been trained to recognise the signs and respond properly changes what your organisation is able to do for its own people.
7. Partner with organisations already doing this work. Your organisation does not have to be a mental health NGO to be part of this. Reach out to the people already running the campaigns and supporting survivors, and ask how you can help. In Nigeria, Anti-Suicide and Depression Squad (ASADS) does this work. Internationally, the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) coordinates World Suicide Prevention Day itself.
8. Open your space to the conversation. Give people inside your organisation somewhere to talk about this without it having to be a formal programme. A short session, an open door, a channel where the subject is not treated as taboo.
9. Create something people can keep. A downloadable list of helplines, a card with the numbers on it, or a poster for a staff room or a classroom. Something that stays useful long after the post has been scrolled past.
10. Check whether your workplace is a safe place to be honest. If someone on your team could not say they were struggling without it costing them something, that is the real thing to fix. It will take longer than September, but it matters more than anything else on this list.
What To Do When Suicide Prevention Awareness Month Ends
Keep the conversation going. Just because September is the month set aside for it does not mean it has to end on the thirtieth. The person you were worried about in September is still there in November, and by then everyone has moved on to the next campaign.
So carry it forward. Every day is still a day to check on the people around you. Every day is still a day to be kind to someone who might be carrying more than they are showing. And whenever the opportunity comes to talk about it, take it, whether that is in September or in June.
Also Read: Suicide Prevention in Africa: What We Need To Talk About
A Final Note
Suicide Prevention Awareness Month is not really about the month. It is more about what we do with what we learn from it. So take what you have learned here and share it with the people around you, so that your community becomes a little more aware. When it comes to this kind of awareness in Africa, we still have a long way to go. But every little effort you make contributes to the bigger picture.
And if you are the one struggling, everything above still applies to you. You do not have to wait until things get bad enough to justify reaching out. There is no threshold you need to cross first, and asking for help early is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
If you are looking for a helpline, you can use this free tool to find crisis support and helpline contacts anywhere in the world. And bookmark our mental health awareness days calendar so you can keep up with other awareness days throughout the year.
Author: Chinasa Lovlyn Nwachukwu is a mental health coach and writer with an MSc in Psychology. She has spent the past four years creating mental health awareness across Africa and writes about the conversations we still find hard to have.
