World Suicide Prevention Day is a day observed on September 10th every year and is designed as a worldwide commitment to preventing suicides, to bring attention to the problem of suicide to the public’s attention and to help society do what it can to prevent suicides now and in the future.

On this day, events and activities are held on a local and global level all over the world and raise awareness that suicide is a preventable problem, although there are many different reasons for why people commit suicide and a lot of complex issues surrounding and contributing to it.

History Of World Suicide Prevention Day

World Suicide Prevention Day was started in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention or IASP. Shortly after it was launched, the World Health Organization began to co-sponsor their events.

This day was established to bring attention to the problem of suicide – which claims the lives of 3,000 people a day or about a million people every year – and to bring people and organizations together to help solve the problem.

The other things World Suicide Day attempts to achieve include increasing public awareness of suicide and to decrease the stigmatization surrounding suicide.

World Suicide Prevention Day Customs & Traditions

Every year, a different theme is established for World Suicide Prevention Day and this theme helps to highlight a particular aspect of suicide and how it can be prevented. For instance, in 2003, the theme was “Suicide Can Be Prevented!”.

In 2012, the theme was “Suicide Prevention across the Globe: Strengthening Protective Factors and Instilling Hope”. In 2016, the theme was “Connect, Communicate, Care.” All over the globe, individuals, agencies, and governments all do different things to bring the spotlight on suicide and to bring people together to help find a solution.

Some of the things which are done include holding press conferences, creating videos about suicide prevention, holding educational seminars and conferences, securing radio and television commercials highlighting the problem, holding memorial service and candlelight vigils, throwing BBQs or luncheons, launching books or other print media, using the hashtag #worldsuicidepreventionday and posting to social media.

All of these efforts can help shine the light on the problem of suicide and help bring people together so they can come up with new strategies to fight it.