Safe and effective reporting on suicides

How we communicate about suicide both in the media and in prevention messages is important. Responsible reporting of suicide in the media is a key strand of suicide prevention, and a central feature of the national suicide prevention strategy in England, says Professor Louis Appleby in his independent review of suicides at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

The Department of Health and Social Care has published an independent report from Professor Appleby reviewing data held by NHS England on deaths by young patients of the gender services at the Trust. The report concluded the data does not support these claims and found “the way this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide.”

Suicide and the news and social media

Presentations in the media have an important role to play in raising awareness of suicide as a public health issue. However, media presentation should be done responsibly and to the ‘highest standards of safe coverage of suicide’ says the Samaritans’ media guidelines. They have developed best practices and recommendations for reporting on suicide in the news media but with wider applicability to any public discussion of suicide, and now increasingly relevant to social media, explains Louis Appleby. These are also endorsed by the Zero Suicide Alliance; you can read ZSA resources here.

Presentation of suicide in news and social media has risks as Professor Appleby explains and include:

• alarming stories about suicide causing distress to people who are themselves at risk
• identification when someone sees in themselves a connection with a person who has died by suicide; leading to:
• imitation and suicide clusters in people with similar characteristics

Appleby has four asks of the media and users of social media which can assist in safe reporting on suicide:

• ensure that any claims about suicide are evidence-based and from a reliable source
• avoid alarming and dramatic language
• avoid the impression that suicide is the expected or likely outcome in certain situations
• avoid oversimplifying suicide by attributing it to a single cause which could be the basis of identification

Professor Appleby who leads the Centre for Mental Health and Safety, investigating suicide and self-harm, the largest research unit in this field internationally, also chairs the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, which provides leadership and support in ensuring successful implementation of ‘Preventing Suicide in England’, the cross-government strategy for suicide prevention.

You can read the full review here and the DHSC’s response here.

The DHSC’s Suicide Prevention Strategy: Action Plan dated September 2023 covered this topic too as follows:

Responsible portrayal of suicide in the media