September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month - below are articles and resources that can prepare you to bring help, hope and comfort to people experiencing a crisis relating to suicide. Click the pink headlines to access these resources.
If you or someone you care about are currently having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 anytime day or night for help and hope.
Suicide Awareness and Prevention
This free downloadable e-book from Spiritual First Aid provides insights from suicide prevention experts and those with lived experience. It contains helpful, practical strategies you can use in your church to come alongside people who may be contemplating suicide, as well as those who love them. It also contains a chapter for faith leaders titled “How Faith Leaders Can Prevent Suicide in Their Communities.”
Finding Hope: A toolkit for Suicide Prevention
This toolkit from STOP Suicide Northeast Indiana provides information on some of the signs and symptoms of someone experiencing suicidal thoughts, tips for how to ask if someone is contemplating suicide, action steps for keeping someone safe from suicide, a resource list, and much more.
Local and National Suicide Resources
This list from STOP Suicide Northeast Indiana contains suicide prevention resources, information on local providers , and grief support information for those whose lives have been touched by suicide.
Suicide prevention bulletin insert from Action Alliance
Prepare for September is Suicide Prevention Month by including this bulletin insert in one of your church bulletins during the month of September. This template can be modified with information and language specific to your congregation.
How can a preacher best address suicide from the pulpit? This book provides wise advice on a range of topics, including suicide prevention, funeral sermon preparation, and post-crisis care.
Suicide Prevention Competencies for Faith Leaders: Supporting Life Before, During, and After a Suicidal Crisis
This new resource, informed by faith community leaders and suicide prevention experts, aims to help equip faith leaders with the capabilities needed to prevent suicide and provide care and comfort for those affected by suicide.
Faith. Hope. Life.
Faith.Hope.Life. is a campaign aimed at involving every faith community in the United States, regardless of creed, in suicide prevention.
Upstream Suicide Prevention: Stress & Resilience
This video from the VA Mental Health and Chaplaincy Program addresses various causes of stress, distress, and emotional suffering, as well as ways clergy can help people cope in the face of such challenges.
What to Do When Your Child Has Thoughts of Suicide
Suicide is not something anyone wants to think about, let alone talk about. I have spoken often with despondent parents whose worst nightmare has become reality—their child has expressed thoughts of suicide. Parents and youth leaders should read this article.
Suicide Prevention with Dan Adams | Hope for Mental Health
Dan Adams shares how a positive, proactive, and upstream approach to care using social networks can ultimately prevent bullying, substance misuse and suicide. Dan is the Director of Training from Sources of Strength, a globally recognized suicide prevention program. Please visit www.kaywarren.com/community for more information about the Hope for Mental Health Community.
Suicide and hope
The Gospel brings hope that changes hearts and saves lives. Lutherans For Life’s Word of Hope Director, Deaconess Chrissie Gillet, PsyD, outlines for us the strategy of HOPE you can apply when someone you know has suicidal thoughts.
What if someone I know is contemplating suicide?
The suicide rate in the U.S. has gone up again. The increase has now raised the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. So how should the church respond?
Five Ways Churches Protect Against Suicide
Watch this webinar from the LookUp Mental Health Series. Dr. Karen Mason presents five ways that you can help protect your church from suicide without starting another program. She talks about some of the obstacles to building suicide protections in your church, and how you can overcome them.
Standing in the Shadow of Love: The Role of the Black Church in Youth Suicide
This video is a recording of a webinar presented by Dr. Sherry Davis Molock, Associate Professor of Psychology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. This webinar helped participants understand the cultural and religious challenges associated with talking about suicide in the African American community. In addition, participants learned practical solutions to help faith-based communities develop suicide prevention programs in African American churches.
The Role of Faith Communities in Suicide Prevention
This webinar offers practical information about suicide prevention for Christian, Jewish, Muslim faith leaders, and highlights the many ways congregations foster mental health-- through "communities of connection," narratives of hope, worship and educational resources, and advocacy in the wider community. The webinar is for faith community leaders (clergy and lay), and suicide prevention practitioners who are interested in working with faith community leaders to help prevent suicide.
A Gentle Whisper" sermon on depression and suicidal thoughts
In this sermon on depression and suicidal thoughts, Rev. Jefrey Jensen explores the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-18 to teach us how to lament to God, and how God comforts His people when in distress. He also weaves in his own personal experience with depression and thoughts of suicide as a young adult, emphasizing the importance of transparency, of asking for help, and the hope and comfort God provides.
LivingWorks Faith
Blending Scriptural wisdom and proven best practices, LivingWorks Faith online suicide prevention course is designed for all Christian ministry leaders who want to learn to effectively prevent, intervene, and minister around the issue of suicide in their congregations.
Soul Shop
Soul Shop provides faith-based suicide prevention workshops to equip faith leaders to minister to those impacted by suicide. They offer specific workshops for clergy, youth leaders, campus ministry leaders, and also for Black and Hispanic churches.
