Suicide Prevention Joy Walk Talks

Suicide Prevention Joy Walk Talks

Suicide Prevention Joy Walk Talks prepare the audience to recognize the warning signs and risk factors for suicide and equip them with the knowledge and skill they need to avert an imminent suicide.

Dr. Jeanine Joy is a Community Suicide Prevention Presenter for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and she wrote a book on suicide prevention after she was inspired by the effectiveness of the strategies she teaches at preventing imminent suicides.

You can ask her to speak in general about suicide prevention, warning signs, risk factors, the international media guidelines for responsible reporting, about how to talk with those who have suffered a loss as the result of suicide, or to present one of the official talks offered free of charge by volunteers for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Remember: During her coast-to-coast walk, Dr. Joy’s goal is give a free talk every day. This is an unprecedented opportunity for your group to learn from a speaker who changes lives with the information she shares.

Suicide is a serious problem in our society that affects multiple groups disproportionately. Groups that have high rates of suicide include veterans, children, LGBTQI, law enforcement, first responders, doctors, dentists, nurses, other clinicians, and the mentally ill.

You can request a Joy Walk Talk tailored to address issues that are specific to a group, such as veterans and survivor guilt and physicians and burnout. Suicide is 100% preventable with the right information at the right time.

Any of the talks can be structured to cover what the audience is most interested in learning including:

• How to prevent suicide in advance
• How to prevent suicide at the time of a crisis
• How to compassionately respond when someone loses a loved one to suicide
• Risk factors and warning signs
• Suicide Prevention for the Media (including bloggers)

Suicide Prevention For the Media (including bloggers)

This is a talk on how to reduce suicide contagion through responsible reporting.

Suicide can be contagious. A team of international researchers reviewed fifty studies and determined that how the media reports on suicides significantly affect whether or not suicide contagion occurs. They published guidelines designed to reduce the risk of contagion. The WHO (World Health Organization) report is available here.

This talk covers how the media should report on suicide in order to reduce suicide contagion. This is an important topic because suicide contagion from poor reporting is responsible for the loss of 400 children to suicide each year whose suicides are influenced by media reports on suicide. By working together, we can save 400 children each year.

With responsible reporting by the media, the suicide contagion number from irresponsible reporting could be zero. Media guidelines for responsible reporting direct what is reported; the guidelines don’t stop responsible reporting or halt the conversation.

Suicide Prevention Resources

A PDF of the risk factors and warning signs: Suicide Prevention Risk factors and warning signs

Suicide Prevention Phone and Text Numbers