A Public Health, Whole-of-Government Approach to National Suicide Prevention Strategies

Abstract

Many countries have national suicide prevention strategies, all of which aim to reduce suicide and many of which also address self-harm more generally (World Health Organization, 2018). In this editorial, we argue that national strategies could be strengthened through an increased focus on the social determinants associated with suicide and self-harm. We present a public health model that articulates how these social determinants might operate and how they might interact with individual-level risk factors. We then describe how these social determinants might be addressed by a whole-of-government approach involving cross-sectoral action and genuine social participation and empowerment of people with lived experience of suicide and self-harm.