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Suicide can be prevented, and everyone has a role to play, including the media.
Suicide can be prevented, and everyone has a role to play, including the media. Media can be a strong ally in suicide prevention, but it can also hinder suicide prevention efforts and do more harm depending on the way that suicides are reported on or described.
By following media guidelines for safe reporting, journalists, newspapers, and news networks, can encourage hope and help-seeking behaviour. In Canada, the main guideline for journalists is Mindset.
Mindset is Canada’s only journalist-to-journalist guide on mental health reporting, and includes information on reporting on suicide. The website provides access to the pdf guide, as well as other resources to support journalists.
If you would like more information, please contact us.
To encourage hope and help-seeking behaviour amongst readers, it is important to:
Language Matters: Safe Communication for Suicide Prevention – Canada.ca
This booklet was created by the Public Health Agency of Canada in partnership with Centre for Suicide Prevention and l’Association québécoise de prévention du suicide and published in 2018.
The Canadian Psychiatric Association released an updated to their media guidelines for reporting on suicide in 2017. This policy paper can be found and downloaded through the link above.
Preventing suicide: a resource for media professionals, update 2023 (who.int)
The World Health Organization has released an updated suicide prevention guide for media professionals. Updates included in this resource focus on proactive reporting on stories of survival,