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Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide

The way that media covers a suicide can influence behavior positively by encouraging help-seeking or negatively by contributing risk factors for suicide. Please consider using the following tips when reporting about suicide and provide them to members of the media who report on the topic of suicide.

Safe and effective messaging guidelines to report on and communicate about suicide and suicide prevention:

Provide a suicide prevention resource.

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988opens phone dialer or chat 988lifeline.org opens in a new window
Crisis Text Line: TEXT “Home” to 741741.
When possible, describe the resources you are offering, and what to expect. A list of resources can be found here.

Educate the audience about warning signs and risk factors.

To learn about warning signs, visit the Suicide Prevention Page.

Avoid discussing details about the method of suicide.

Avoid details that describe the suicide, including weapon or method used, the specific location, and the location of the wound.

Explain complexity of suicide and avoid oversimplifying.

Reference the complexity involved in suicide.
Avoid oversimplifying “causes” of suicide or pointing to one event as “the cause” of a suicide attempt or death.
Don’t speculate. It’s natural to want to answer the “why” involved in a suicide but rarely do we fully understand the reasons behind a suicide.

Focus on prevention: Avoid sensational language and images.

Avoid statistics that make suicide seem overly common as this may remove protective factors for suicide.
Consider using positive statistics that highlight help-seeking such as the number of calls to the local crisis line or visits to a prevention focused website.
Use hopeful images that show people being supported; avoid images that show people suffering alone.

Are you interested in learning more or having us review a story? Contact us.