Guide to Reporting Suicide

A quick guide to reporting suicide

Some of the ways you can portray suicide appropriately, whether you are working with the issue in a dramatic or factual context.

Use phrases like:

• A suicide
• Die by suicide
• A suicide attempt
• A completed suicide
• Person at risk of suicide
• Help prevent suicide

Avoid phrases like:

• A 'successful' suicide attempt
• An 'unsuccessful' suicide attempt
• 'Commit' suicide (since suicide was decriminalised in 1961, we prefer not to talk about "committing suicide", but use "take one's life", or "die by suicide" instead)
• Suicide 'victim'
• 'Just a cry for help'
• 'Suicide-prone' person
• Stop the 'spread/epidemic' of suicide

Encourage public understanding of the complexity of suicide.

People do not decide to take their own life in response to a single event, however painful that event may be. Nor can social conditions alone explain suicide. The causes of an individual suicide are manifold, and suicide should not be portrayed as the inevitable outcome of serious personal problems.

Seek expert advice.

The Samaritans' Press Office can help put you in contact with acknowledged experts on suicide and offer advice about depiction based on an overview of previous cases. Debunk the common myths about suicide. There is an opportunity to educate the public by challenging these.

Encourage explanation of the risk factors of suicide.

Encourage discussion by health experts on the possible contributory causes of suicide.

Consider the timing.

The coincidental deaths by suicide of two or more people makes the story more topical and newsworthy, but additional care is required in the reporting of "another suicide, just days after…", which might imply a connection. There are 17 suicides every day, most of which go unreported.

Include details of further sources of information and advice.

Listing appropriate sources of help or support at the end of an article or a programme shows the person who might be feeling suicidal that they are not alone and that they have the opportunity to make positive choices

Remember the effect on survivors of suicide – either those who have attempted it or who have been bereaved.

It might be helpful to be able to offer interviewees some form of support such as information about The Samaritans, or for those who are bereaved by suicide, information about The Compassionate Friends or Cruse.

Look after yourself.

Reporting suicide can be very distressing in itself, even for the most hardened news reporter, especially if the subject touches something in your own experience. Talk it over with colleagues, friends, family or Samaritans.

Avoid simplistic explanations for suicide.

Suicide is never the result of a single factor or event although a catalyst may seem obvious. Accounts which try to explain a suicide on the basis of dashed romantic feelings or a single dramatic incident should be challenged. News features could be used to provide more detailed analysis of the reasons behind the rise in suicides.

Avoid brushing over the realities of a suicide.

Depiction may be damaging if it shows a character who has attempted suicide immediately recovered or if it glosses over the grim reality of slow liver failure following a paracetamol overdose.

Avoid explicit or technical details of suicide in reports.

Reporting that a person died from carbon monoxide poisoning is not in itself harmful, however providing details of the mechanism and procedure used to carry out the suicide may lead to the imitation of suicidal behaviour by other people at risk. Particular care should be taken in specifying the type and number of tablets used in an overdose.

Don't romanticise or glorify suicide.

Reporting which highlights community expressions of grief may suggest that the local community is honouring the suicidal behaviour of the deceased person, rather than mourning their death.

Don't overemphasise the 'positive' results of a person's suicide.

A dangerous message from the media is that suicide achieves results; it makes people sorry or it makes people eulogise you. For instance, a soap opera story line or newspaper coverage where a child's suicide or suicide attempt seems to result in separated parents reconciling or school bullies being publicly shamed may offer an appealing option to a despairing child in similar circumstances.