World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is an awareness day always observed on 10 September every year, in order to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides, with various activities around the world since 2003. The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) to host World Suicide Prevention Day. In 2011 an estimated 40 countries held awareness events to mark the occasion. According to WHO's Mental Health Atlas released in 2014, no low-income country reported having a national suicide prevention strategy, while less than 10% of lower-middle income countries, and almost a third of upper-middle and high-income countries had.
On its first event in 2003, the 1999 WHO's global suicide prevention initiative is mentioned with regards to the main strategy for its implementation, requiring: "The organisation of global, regional and national multi-sectoral activities to increase awareness about suicidal behaviours and how to effectively prevent them." "The strengthening of countries's capabilities to develop and evaluate national policies and plans for suicide prevention."
As of recent WHO releases, challenges represented by social stigma, the taboo to openly discuss suicide, and low availability of data are still to date obstacles leading to poor data quality for both suicide and suicide attempts: "given the sensitivity of suicide – and the illegality of suicidal behaviour in some countries – it is likely that under-reporting and misclassification are greater problems for suicide than for most other causes of death."
Background
An estimated one million people per year die by suicide or about one person in 10,000 (1.4% of all deaths), or "a death every 40 seconds or about 3,000 every day". As of 2004 the number of people who die by suicide is expected to reach 1.5 million per year by 2020.
On average, three male suicides are reported for every female one, consistently across different age groups and in almost every country in the world. "Conversely, rates of suicide attempts tend to be 2-3 times higher in women than in men, although the gender gap has narrowed in recent years." More people die from suicide than from murder and war; it is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. According to WHO there are twenty people who have a suicide attempt for every one that is fatal, at a rate approximately one every three seconds. Suicide is the "most common cause of death for people aged 15 – 24."
According to WHO, suicide accounts for nearly half of all violent deaths in the world. Brian Mishara, IASP president, noted that, "more people kill themselves than die in all wars, terrorist acts and interpersonal violence combined." As of 2008, the WHO refers the widest number of suicides occur in the age group 15 - 29, while the lowest in the 80+ although representing as well the one with the highest rate (per 100,000) of all age groups, with 27.8 suicides and 60.1 for females and males respectively. In 2015 the reported global age-standardized rate is 10.7 per 100,000.
Social norms play a significant role in the development of suicidal behaviors. Late 19th century's sociological studies recorded first ever observations on suicide: with statistics of the time at hand, sociologists mentioned the effects of industrialization as in relations between new urbanized communities and vulnerability to self-destructive behavior, suggesting social pressures have effects on suicide. Today, differences in suicidal behavior among different countries can be significant.
Themes
2003 – "Suicide Can Be Prevented!" 2004 – "Saving Lives, Restoring Hope" 2005 – "Prevention of Suicide is Everybody's Business" 2006 – "With Understanding New Hope" 2007 – "Suicide prevention across the Life Span" 2008 – "Think Globally, Plan Nationally, Act Locally" 2009 – "Suicide Prevention in Different Cultures" 2010 – "Families, Community Systems and Suicide" 2011 – "Preventing Suicide in Multicultural Societies" 2012 – "Suicide Prevention across the Globe: Strengthening Protective Factors and Instilling Hope" 2013 – "Stigma: A Major Barrier to Suicide Prevention" 2014 – "Light a candle near a Window" 2015 – "Preventing Suicide: Reaching Out and Saving Lives" 2016 – "Connect, Communicate, Care" 2017 – "Take a Minute, Change a Life" 2018 – "Working Together to Prevent Suicide" 2019 – "Working Together to Prevent Suicide" 2020 – "Working Together to Prevent Suicide" 2021 - "Creating Hope Through Action" 2022 - "Creating Hope Through Action" 2023 - "Creating Hope Through Action"