September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Suicide prevention is deeply personal work. Across my career in mental health, education, and social services, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about what we actually mean when we say we want to prevent suicide. Prevention has to begin  early in our relationships, our communities, and our systems of care. It rests on our fundamental willingness to talk honestly about suffering. 

SAMHSA’s 2026 Suicide Prevention Awareness Month materials emphasize raising awareness, promoting evidence-based prevention, normalizing help-seeking, prioritizing whole-person care, and fostering connection through community. The message underneath all of those things is important: suicide is preventable, and connection matters.

• Prevention happens when someone can say, “I am not doing well,” and another person is willing to hear them.

• It happens when we notice hopelessness, withdrawal, significant changes in behavior, or other signs that someone may be struggling—and take them seriously.

• It happens when we say the word suicide rather than avoiding it because we are uncomfortable with what it entails.

• It happens when families, schools, workplaces, healthcare systems, and communities create environments where asking for help is normal and where meaningful help is actually available.

• And it happens when we follow up. When our systems are robust enough to have a place for help and treatment. 

Four years after the launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, a 2026 NAMI/Ipsos survey found that 74% of Americans have heard of 988.  This is meaningful progress in our fight to save lives. However, only 29% report they are actually familiar with what 988 does. Among people who have used 988, three in four reported receiving some or all of the help they needed.

The space between initial contact and the follow up care that can alleviate suffering is the ongoing struggle. With the attack on public health systems from the federal government, we are in for some years of work to sustain the interventions we know will help. For those of us who work in the helping professions, suicide prevention also requires us to resist reducing suicide to an individual failure or an individual clinical problem. We must remain attentive to the systemic issues that drive hopelessness. It is exhausting work to care for the hurting and then take up political and social causes but we are positioned to be strong advocates. Our voices carry experiential authority and we cannot retreat from the broader work. We cannot eliminate every loss. But we can build communities in which fewer people have to carry unbearable things alone.

So this month, pay attention to one another.

Ask the question.

Listen to the answer.

Follow up.

Take people seriously.

And know how to connect someone with help.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or emotional distress, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by calling 988, texting 988, or using online chat.

Talk saves lives.Help helps.Connection matters.