Today marks World Suicide Prevention Day. Established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO), 10 September each year focuses attention on the issues, helping reduce stigmas and raise awareness among governments, organizations and the general public, giving a singular message: suicides are preventable.
Suicide remains a critical global issue, affecting individuals and communities worldwide.
In 2022, Child Helpline International’s child helpline members reported that one in every four (26.6%) of the children and young people making contact with the child helpline was doing so because they had concerns about their mental health. Within this general mental health category, almost a fifth of the contacts (18.4%) related specifically to suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. Additionally, a further one in ten of the contacts within the mental health category related to self-harming behaviours (9.4%). Girls contacted child helplines significantly more than boys in cases of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, concerns about self, and self-harming behaviours.
The data from child helplines indicates that self-destructive tendencies consistently remain an important mental health condition raised by children and young people who reach out to them.
Similarly, Missing Children Europe reports that mental illness is among the top reasons why children run away from home or institutional care. However, in 2023, only nine hotlines for missing children (out of 18 respondents) stated recording information on a child’s mental health. The most common reasons children get lost and go missing include experiencing a mental health problem which hindered their ability to return home.
Early intervention and support for mental health issues, appropriate training for those working with vulnerable children, and comprehensive data collection on missing children are essential to protect and support children facing mental health challenges.
Child Helpline International and Missing Children Europe are coming together to provide two days interactive training for counsellors, psychologists, volunteers and other staff working for their child helpline members. The training aims to share practical guidance on counselling processes and communication when responding to children and young people expressing suicidal thoughts or ideations, and to understand and address the associated risks when a child or young person goes missing, or runs away.
“The first time I tried to kill myself, I was just 10 years old…”
A 16-year-old girl called the child helpline, and described to the counsellor the emotional violence she had been experiencing from her parents for her entire life. Her parents’ attitude towards her had been full of anger, indifference and lack of support, and they had been laughing at her. She felt controlled and helpless. “‘My parents told me that if I tell anybody about their behaviour, they will give me away to somebody else and I will never see them or my siblings again,”
The girl had been trying to manage her intense feelings of anger and stress. She had already tried to kill herself several times. Her first suicide attempt had taken place when she was just 10 years old. She had also tried self-harming.
During the conversation with the counsellor, she asked about good ways of coping with her emotions and about places where she might find help. The counsellor helped her to decide, despite the girl initially having many concerns, to ask for help at her school, and to talk about her problems with a school counsellor or with one of her teachers.
“This week’s been horrible, and I just want to end it all…”
A 17-year-old girl called the helpline looking for some support with her thoughts of suicide. She explained to the adviser that there had been a lot going on in her life and that she had felt suicidal for a number of years. This included some previous attempts to end her own life. She told the adviser that she had been struggling with her mental health for 8 years, but was finding this week particularly challenging due to having been physically assaulted on a bus.
“I feel triggered when I go to hospital because no one is ever there to support me.” She explained that she always felt alone, and this had been something she had experienced many times whenever she was admitted to hospital due to a suicide attempt. She explained that she had been trying to get mental health support but felt there was a real lack of help available to her. Alongside this, she struggled to trust professionals due to previous experiences that she’d had.
The adviser worked collaboratively with the girl to build up a trust in the helpline’s services. Together they created a suicide safety plan in hope of supporting the caller in not taking any steps towards trying to end her life that day, which would then avoid the need for yet another hospital visit. As part of this suicide safety plan, they discussed coping strategies that would help the girl feel distracted throughout the evening. Before the call ended, the girl was given advice as to how she could gain more support in her home area about how she were feeling, and help with her issues about facing a lack of support.
“If I see something sharp, I just want to cut myself…”
A young man aged 23 called the child helpline to discuss his mental health problem. This problem had arisen many years ago, when his family couldn’t accept that he was LGBT and didn’t believe in his mental health issue. He often felt like committing suicide. Sometimes he felt like jumping into a river. At other times, whenever he saw something sharp, he thought about cutting himself, and he experienced anxiety. He found those urges hard to describe and out of control.
The counsellor listened to him carefully and empathetically, understanding that he was going through a hard time, especially as the people closest to him wouldn’t accept his situation. The counsellor talked to him about his daily life and how he was dealing with his situation. The counsellor reflected on the young man’s strengths and reassured him that his attempt to seek support for his mental health was the right thing to do. As a result, the young man was encouraged to visit a mental health centre, and he participated in several mental health seminars, read books on the subject and began listening to motivational videos that helped him understand more about his mental health. The young man has now been more able to share his situation and his experiences with the people around him.