Collection: Integrating the Lived Experience in Suicide Prevention

The emergent paradigm for suicide prevention includes a burgeoning consensus among health professionals that the suicide rate is not likely to decrease until we allow the contributions of both those who are currently suicidal and those who have the lived experience of suicide. The former group, those who are currently suicidal, are being listened to in suicide prevention protocols which embrace collaborative assessment; you can find tools and perspective on that in our collection: Suicide assessment: Approaches and tools. This collection demonstrates the importance of incorporating the perspective of the latter group – those who have the lived experience of suicide – in prevention efforts. In one of the courses, the lecturer shares her organisation’s mission of empowering people with lived experience to inform and influence suicide prevention. Building a lived experience workforce in this way is not easy, but the course on emerging solutions in suicide prevention asserts that it is crucial, proposing changes such as that medical professionals relinquish some power, allowing those with lived experience to be more centrally engaged. Government funding for peer-to-peer support and board roles with voting rights for lived experience individuals will also help. When those with lived experience assist in the creation of programs for suicide prevention, it is called “co-design”, and a third course explains the theoretical rationale for it as well as delineating the essential elements for a successful co-design process (aspects such as using appropriate language and managing expectations and the inevitable power imbalance). The Zero Suicide course makes the case for adopting a paradigm of no suicide, but explains that to achieve it, we must genuinely aspire to zero suicide, as well as incorporating lived experience and starting by looking at the end goal.