A new suicide prevention net at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has now been completed, with crews working to finish installing the stainless steel barriers on both sides before the promised deadline of 2024. According to the Guardian, the project was first approved almost ten years ago, with work starting back in 2018. Various construction delays hindered progress, however, while the project was also met with resistance from some quarters that didn’t want to see the landmark altered, or that considered the installation to be too expensive. The Bridge Rail Foundation, set up in 2006, i ..read more

Multinational technology conglomerate Meta announced this week (January 9th) that it will be hiding inappropriate content such as posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders from teenagers’ accounts on both Facebook and Instagram. According to the Independent, the company already strives to avoid recommending this kind of age-inappropriate material to this demographic, but it will also now ensure that it doesn’t show up in feeds, even if it’s been shared by a followed account. Teenagers will also see their Facebook and Instagram accounts placed on the most restrictive settings possible ..read more

A key commitment in the government’s national suicide prevention strategy has now been delivered upon through the launch of a new suicide surveillance system that aims to tackle emerging methods of suicide and crack down on those looking to sell dangerous products to vulnerable demographics. A national alert system will also be rolled out in the future so that anyone who comes across any potentially dangerous new methods or risks of suicide will be able to use a direct link to central government to report it. Alerts will also be circulated to authorities such as charities and schools to enable ..read more

A class of drugs sold by Novo Nordisk, primarily used as diabetes medication but which can also be taken as a weight loss treatment, is now under review in the UK after being linked to suicidal thoughts. An exclusive Reuters report revealed that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is now looking into safety data on GLP-1 receptor agonists, including Ozempic (the active ingredient of which is semaglutide) and Saxenda (the active ingredient of which is liraglutide). This drug class was originally developed as a treatment option for Type 2 diabetes, mimicking a gut horm ..read more

The Secretary of Defense over in the US has just issued an immediate action directive to drive mission readiness by promoting good-quality sleep, in response to research showing that service members experiencing sleep issues are almost three times more likely to report suicide ideation and other potentially harmful behaviours. The immediate action directive ensures that duty schedules will allow for between seven and eight hours of sleep in every 24-hour period. Furthermore, commanders will also be expected to minimise the frequency of shift changes so as to prevent sleep disruption where poss ..read more

A new integrated suicide prevention programme has been developed by a team of researchers from the University of York and Tilburg University in the Netherlands, which has successfully seen deaths reduced by over a fifth. The five-year Suicide Prevention by Monitoring and Collaborative Care project centred on the Netherlands province of Noord-Brabant, which has historically high suicide rates. It was found that in the year before the programme was implemented, suicide rates were 14.4 per 100,000 people, but after its 2018 implementation, rates fell to 11.8. Come the year 2021, the rates remaine ..read more

A new programme of research and policy work has just been incorporated into the Department for Health and Social Care Suicide Prevention Strategy 2023-2028, meaning that autistic people are now included as a specific demographic in suicide prevention policy for the first time. Carried out by the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology, this research project is the first to indicate that late diagnosis of autism in adulthood is associated with a high risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Various key recommendations have been made by the autism community for inclusion in the policy b ..read more

One of the biggest global health problems is suicide, with more than 700,000 suicides annually around the world, according to the World Health Organisation, something that has extensive socio-economic and emotional consequences for many. Every year, the month of September is dedicated to raising awareness of suicide prevention as a public health priority, with the triennial theme for 2021-2023 set as Creating Hope Through Action. The aim of this theme is to serve as a strong call to action and reminder that there are alternatives to suicide and through collective actions we can encourage feeli ..read more

Leading experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the University of Leeds have issued a call for all work-related suicides to be investigated by the Health and Safety Executive following the death of a headteacher from Berkshire. Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), professors Martin McKee and Sarah Waters called for change in response to the death of Ruth Perry, who took her life in January following an Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary School, which was downgraded from Outstanding to Inadequate, the BBC reports. The two experts argued in the BMJ opini ..read more

Everyone manages perceived or actual emotional stress differently and our ability to navigate our way through certain incidents without feeling overwhelmed is what is known as distress tolerance. We are able to return to a more balanced state in the face of new stressors if we can cope with difficult emotions and feelings, but it can be very challenging to do this when faced with adversity, particularly if we’ve got some kind of trauma history behind us. However, it is possible to improve distress tolerance skills and start to build up resilience in face of immediate emotional crises so that w ..read more