The Board of the American Association of Suicidology recently voted to create a new division to represent and recognize individuals who have attempted suicide and survived. This move seems to be representative of the beginning of a shift in how those involved in suicide prevention view openly talking about and learning from those who have made suicide attempts and survived. A trend summarized nicely in this NY Times article:
Those involved in suicide prevention have taken a cautious approach toward openly talking about or publicizing individual stories about completed suicides and attempts. The issue of copycat suicides and suicide clusters gives justifiable concern toward publicizing completed suicides but what will be the effect of increased discussion around suicide attempts?
There is optimism around what can be learned from suicide attempt survivors and how those experiences can be used to prevent future suicides. The website LiveThroughThis.org provides a collection of portraits and survivor stories in an attempt in part to build greater awareness and humanize survivors.
It will be interesting to see how this trend progresses, what is learned, and what impact, if any, it ultimately has on the very real need to develop effective interventions to prevent suicides.