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Suicide Prevention Resources & Materials for Schools & Workplaces

By: Alana Luna • Edited by: Tracey Rosenblath • Subject Matter Expert Reviewed by: Brindusa Vanta, MD • 5 cited sources • Updated Oct 29, 2024

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one person somewhere in the world dies by suicide every 40 seconds^[1]. That’s a total of over 800,000 people lost to suicide each year. Experts, including those at WHO, believe suicides are preventable if society is willing to make suicide a high-priority item on both the global public health stage and closer to home.

That starts with a two-fold approach focusing on two environments where individuals often experience significant stress:

• Suicide prevention for schools: Suicide is the third highest cause of death among high school students between the ages of 14-18^[2].
• Suicide prevention for workplaces: In the decade between 2011 and 2021, there were 2,962 total work-related suicides^[3].

The effects of suicide ripple far beyond the original impact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that suicide and nonfatal self-harm incidents cost entities in the United States a staggering $500 billion in 2020^[4]. Loss of workplace productivity, the estimated value of lost lives, and medical costs are just some of the reasons for those soaring expenses. However, many experts believe suicide awareness and prevention could save lives and lessen the financial toll of suicide overall.

In this guide, we’ll look at ways you can be proactive and connect with and offer multifaceted support to those in need.

Key Takeaways

• Suicide prevention for schools starts early and emphasizes education and reducing stigma.
• Suicide prevention for workplaces concentrates on education and enacting policies that reduce judgment and allow for better work-life balance.
• Both school and work environments can benefit from peer programs that educate individuals on how to spot signs of self-harm and suicide in their classmates or coworkers.
• Offering easy access to resources, including educational materials and crisis hotlines, is vital.
• Open-door policies, burnout assessments, and mindfulness training can all help open and maintain dialogues about wellness and mental health concerns.

Suicide Prevention for Schools: Essential Resources

Suicide prevention training plays an important role in reducing suicide among school-aged children. However, many people don’t realize prevention begins early and requires ongoing attention and education to be effective.

If you’re in a leadership role in a school system, here’s how you can protect your student body and teachers and prepare peers to be the first in line to help those in need.

Focus on Mental Health Education

Schools are often the “front line” when it comes to spotting students with mental health concerns and offering support outside the home. You can help those students if you do the following:

• Come from a place of positivity and emphasize neuro-affirming, safe, and inclusive learning environments for students from all walks of life.
• Use classroom-based activities and formal training (off-site, on-site, or both) to teach students and staff about the importance of mental health.
• Include social skills and emotional development as core focal points in health and other academic curricula.
• Have trauma-informed practices and response programs in place before they’re needed.

Start Early

While you’re busy reducing the existing stigma surrounding mental health in older students, take time to nip that stigma before it begins by including mental health education in the elementary school curriculum. The CDC suggests six school-based strategies that can be used as early as kindergarten^[5]:

• Increase students’ mental health literacy through classroom education and peer-led modeling programs
• Promote mindfulness
• Teach social, emotional, and behavioral skill-building
• Enhance connections between staff, students, and families
• Provide cognitive behavioral interventions and promote/model positive behaviors, such as acceptance and commitment to change
• Begin at the top by actively supporting staff in their own well-being journeys

Offer a Variety of Support Services

You can support students and staff through programs and services accessed in a multitude of ways:

• Health offices with open-door policies staffed by (or able to refer to) school psychologists and crisis intervention experts
• Peer support programs where students are trained how to recognize warning signs in their friends and classmates and reduce the stigma around mental health and seeking help from a trusted adult
• Partnerships with mental health organizations, both locally and nationally, that can provide additional resources, such as confidential help lines, educational materials, and guest speakers

Suicide Prevention for Workplaces: Essential Resources

Suicide prevention for workplace environments can be tricky, as you’re tasked with balancing the needs of the organization with the needs of each worker. It’s easy to overlook an employee’s anxiety when a project deadline is looming or dismiss a moment of stress as someone temporarily succumbs to pressure from a client.

However, creating opportunities for communication and launching programs that center on mental health can create open dialogue and ensure everyone is cognizant of suicide risk, concerning behaviors, and what to do if they or someone they know shows signs of self-harm.

Open Internal Communication Channels

Your human resource department should be trained to initiate and responsibly engage in conversations about mental health concerns, including suicide. Training should include information about enacting and highlighting confidentiality policies and responding to employees with empathy and nonjudgmental responses to encourage openness and prove that seeking help won’t come with repercussions.

Incorporate Suicide Awareness and Prevention Programs

Avoid tiptoeing around suicide and tackle the concern head-on with employee training programs, such as Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR), and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). These initiatives are built to help non-healthcare professionals recognize the warning signs of suicide and engage with or refer individuals in need of additional support.

QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) can be seen as CPR for mental health concerns, providing emergency intervention for suicidal individuals. Its goal is to identify crises, intervene, and guide people toward appropriate care, therefore improving survival chances.

Dr.Brindusa Vanta, MD

Put a Spotlight on Mental Health

Make mental health policies, including days off for self-care and flexible work hours/locations, part of your employee handbook. Policies should include allowances and restrictions that support work-life balance:

• Educate employees on symptoms of worker burnout and what they can do if they’re experiencing it
• Limit overtime and work-related communication outside of set work hours
• Support using vacation time
• Set break times and have supervisors model taking those breaks

You can also build a mental health library—digital, tangible, or a mixture of both—that includes information about important topics, including:

• Books and e-books about mindfulness, meditation, self-care, work-life balance, sleep techniques, etc.
• A list of websites and hotlines offered by organizations specializing in suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and mental health—for example, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) and Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741)
• Information on employee assistance programs (EAPs), including numbers for the EAP hotline and counseling services, if available
• E-learning modules that allow participants to brush up on mental health topics at their own pace

You can even add workshops and seminars to your corporate schedule, bringing in experts on stress management and wellness to offer tips and teach coping skills to your team.

Education on various mental illnesses is essential to better understand the risk factors linked with suicide and prevent suicides. Depression, for example, is the most common condition associated with suicide and is frequently undiagnosed and left untreated. Anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders also significantly raise the risk of suicide. Effective education and early intervention play a key role in reducing these risks.

Dr. Brindusa Vanta, MD

Looking Forward: Implementing Strategies and Providing Resources for Suicide Prevention

Creating programs centered on suicide prevention for schools and workplaces can feel like a monumental task. But that work is so important and, in fact, crucial to the well-being of our children, coworkers, and even our leaders. Even if you incorporate the suggestions and mental health and suicide resources slowly, those incremental changes can lead to major changes that could improve the quality of life—or even save the life—of someone you know. 

Written by Alana Luna

Alana Musselman (Luna) is a versatile storyteller with over a decade of experience writing for diverse industries. Her writing has been featured on prestigious brands such as WW (Weight Watchers), Amazon, and Penta.

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Edited by Tracey Rosenblath

A writer and editor with a strong passion for editing, Tracey authored the Project 2000 Black Book for Coriolis Technology Press and, alongside Michael Meyers, co-authored the first edition of the A+ Certification Passport for Osborne/McGraw-Hill. She now focuses her expertise on editing just about anything, from technical pieces to fiction. A strong generalist, she believes there's nothing more satisfying than taking words on a page and manipulating them into something better than they were before.

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Subject Matter Expert Brindusa Vanta, MD

Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a healthcare professional, researcher, and medical subject matter expert . She earned her MD degree from "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine, Romania. She has a special interest in mental health and has collaborated with psychologists and other mental health practitioners on various research projects focused on therapies to manage depression, age-related cognitive decline, trauma and stressor- related conditions.