Importance of Messages for a Suicide Prevention Media Campaign

A suicide prevention media campaign aimed at family members and friends may be one useful population-level suicide prevention strategy for Australia. However, currently there is limited evidence of what messages would be acceptable and appropriate for inclusion.

This expert consensus study aimed to identify messages that experts with lived experience of suicide risk and suicide prevention professionals believed were most important to include in such a suicide prevention campaign.

Using an online survey method, 127 participants with lived experience (lived experience group) and 33 suicide prevention professionals (suicide prevention professionals group) rated 55 statements, drawn from an earlier Delphi study, from very low priority to very high priority for inclusion in a suicide prevention campaign.

There was significant agreement within and between the two participant groups on the most highly rated messages for inclusion. The mostly highly rated messages were that family members or friends should ask directly about suicidal thoughts and intentions, listen to responses without judgment, and tell the person at risk that they care and want to help.

We restricted ratings to just one round and may therefore have limited the level of consensus achieved. Use of a predefined set of suicide prevention messages might also have prevented us from identifying other important messages. Lived experience participants were drawn from one source and this might bias their responses through exposure to common suicide prevention messages that influence their points of view.

There is substantial agreement between professionals and people with lived experience on the most important messages to include in a suicide prevention campaign. These most highly rated messages could be adopted in a suicide prevention media campaign.