Sharing stories of people’s lived and living experience of suicide is central to effective suicide prevention efforts. While research has identified the negative impacts associated with unsafe reporting of suicide (the Werther effect) and the more recently discovered positive and preventive effects of safe public communication of people overcoming a suicidal crisis (the Papageno effect), there are gaps in understanding about how people with a lived and living experience of suicide engage with public communication about suicide and how they believe suicide should be spoken about in the community. This project aimed to understand the experiences of people with lived experience of suicide and their engagement with media and public communications about suicide to inform the development of a suite of guidelines for people sharing their personal experiences and how people can support them to share their stories.
This project followed a co-design approach, involving people with a lived and living experience of suicide from commencement through to the final resource outputs. An evidence review was used to draw on the existing evidence base and knowledge has been generated through workshops, semi-structured interviews and a national research survey which engaged over 300 people who have a lived and living experience of suicide. This data has been used to inform the development of a suite of accessible resources to support people in understanding the media and public communications landscape in Australia, guidelines and support for safe storytelling and guidelines for public communication professionals to support the storytelling process and discuss suicide in a way that is reflective of the perspectives of people with a lived and living experience.
This presentation outlines the key results from the national research survey, the key advice that has emerged for people sharing their lived and living experiences of suicide publicly, and how organisations and public communication professionals can support the storytelling process. This presentation will discuss not only how communities and public communicators need to shift the narrative on how suicide is discussed but also how all lived experiences of suicide, in all their intersections, can exist equally in the public domain and move together towards tomorrow.