Suicide Prevention Resources for Educators

#BeThe1To is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s message for National Suicide Prevention Month and beyond, spreading the word about actions we can all take to prevent suicide. Please review and share widely.

The five action steps for communicating with someone who may be suicidal are supported by evidence in the field of suicide prevention.

A Young Person’s Guide for Communicating Safely about Suicide Online.

Active Minds was founded by Alison Malmon when she was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania following the suicide of her older brother, and only sibling, Brian. Active Minds was incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization in late 2003. National organization impacting young adults and mental health. Now in more than 1,000 campuses and communities, we directly reach more than 1.9 million people each year through awareness campaigns, events, advocacy, outreach, and more.

More Than Sad has taught over a million students and educators how to be smarter about mental health. 

Learn more about each program and purchase More Than Sad to receive the two More Than Sad films, Teen Depression and Preventing Teen Suicide below. All programs may be delivered in person or virtually.

Dr. Matt Wintersteen, Associate Professor, Director Research at Thomas Jefferson University, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior talks about asking young people “are you okay?” and being prepared for the answer. Dr. Wintersteen has also received a research grant from AFSP.

Attitudes In Reverse® or AIR® offers a comprehensive mental health plan to educate youth, from elementary level through college-age. AIR’®s programs are wrapped in messages of understanding, empathy and kindness towards all.

The Bergen County STIGMA-FREE Initiative is a county-wide program which aims to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. We are dedicated to raising awareness of the disease of mental illness and create a culture wherein residents who have the disease feel supported by their community and neighbors and feel free to seek treatment for the disease without fear of stigma.

A Stigma Free Toolkit is available for download.

Break Free from Depression (BFFD) is a four-module curriculum focused on increasing awareness about adolescent depression and designed for use in high school classrooms. The goals are to increase adolescents’ awareness about depression, teach them how to recognize it in themselves and in their friends, and give them strategies for finding help. This curriculum is now available online (more information is below). Included in the materials are step-by-step directions, handouts, resources, and all of the presentations for the student curriculum, parent workshop, and staff development workshop.

These evidence-based resources can help you teach your students the mental health skills they need to be more ready to learn.

Mental health and suicide prevention in the Black community are explored in the new NorthJersey.com documentary, “Ending the Stigma.”

No school leader wants to plan for a tragic loss in their community, but David Aderhold argues that this goes hand-in-hand with prioritizing mental health.

Ending the Silence is a free, evidence-based, 50-minute session designed for middle and high school students. Your students will learn about mental health conditions through a brief presentation, short videos, and personal testimony from a young adult who describes their journey to recovery.

Our mission is to make sure no young person feels alone in their depression. We are dedicated to creating a community of empathy and education. We create upper elementary, middle school and high school mental health, depression and suicide awareness programs so educators, families and teens can create safe spaces to learn about mental health, letting students know they are never alone, and there is somewhere to turn.

Identify students who are at risk of suicide or possible harm to others through threats, violence, and bullying.

The PAX Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based universal preventive intervention applied by teachers in the classroom. This evidence-based practice consists of a set of research-based strategies with origins in behavioral science, neuroscience, and cultural wisdom that operate together to improve children’s self-regulation. Teachers implement these strategies as part of their daily routines in carrying out tasks such as getting students’ attention, selecting students for tasks, transitioning from one task to the next, working as part of a team, limiting problematic behavior, and reinforcing pro-social behavior.

Hopeful Minds is a project developed by iFred, the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression. It is based on research that suggests hope is teachable (a skill). The aim is to equip students, teachers, and parents with the tools they need to define, learn, and grow a hopeful mindset and prevent hopelessness around the world.

JED empowers teens and young adults by building resiliency and life skills, promoting social connectedness, and encouraging help-seeking and help-giving behaviors through our nationally recognized programs, digital channels, and partnerships, as well as through the media. JED strengthens schools by working directly with high schools, colleges, and universities — representing millions of students — to put systems, programs, and policies in place to create a culture of caring that protects student mental health, builds life skills, and makes it more likely that struggling students will seek help and be recognized, connected to care, and supported. We mobilize communities by providing education, training, and tools to families, friends, media, and others.

Practice-based digital learning to improve mental health and well-being in schools, campuses, and communities. Kognito role-play simulations enable organizations to rapidly build the capacity of educators and students to lead real-life conversations that change lives.

Practice-based digital learning to improve mental health and well-being in schools, campuses, and communities. Kognito role-play simulations enable organizations to rapidly build the capacity of educators and students to lead real-life conversations that change lives.

The Lifelines Prevention student curriculum (formerly known as the Lifelines Curriculum) is one component of Lifelines: Helping A Comprehensive Suicide Awareness and Responsiveness Program for Teens, a comprehensive, schoolwide suicide prevention program for middle and high schools. The goal of the overall Lifelines program is to promote a caring, competent school community in which help-seeking is encouraged and modeled and suicidal behavior is recognized as an issue that cannot be kept secret.

The U.S. has a youth mental health crisis. School mental health services help address the crisis. Through our School Mental Health Initiative, the MHTTC Networks aims to accelerate the implementations of effective mental health services in schools.

Educators and school personnel play a vital role in promoting mental health and well-being and identifying and responding to emerging mental illness in children and adolescents. However, they often have not received the education, training, and/or ongoing support needed to respond in the classroom.

At Minding Your Mind, we create experiences that open minds and show people they are not alone when they are struggling. Our group of young adult speakers, who have successfully and productively coped with their mental health challenges, share their stories of hope, recovery, and resilience.

Neolth was built by education and health professionals, in partnership with 250 students.

Our comprehensive solution includes three versions of Neolth: our self-guided student app, our educator platform for classroom use, and our health analytics platform for counselors & administrators.

In November 2024, NJAMHAA launched a new campaign, Untold Stories You will read several success stories within these pages. These successes were realized by individuals who were fortunate enough to access the appropriate mental health and/or substance use treatment and supports they needed to assist them in reaching their goals of healthier and more productive lives. There are, unfortunately, so many untold stories – stories of those who are unable to access such services. They are tragically often counted among the statistics on suicides, hospitalizations, imprisonment and overdoses.

Created by the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, Not My Kid: What Every Parent Should Know is an online learning experience that features videos of parents from culturally diverse backgrounds asking mental health professionals a variety of common questions about youth suicide. You may be interested in receiving information to help your child, a family member or a friend of your child, and Not My Kid provides this information from a variety of mental health professionals.

Not My Kid contains a variety of videos that assists parents, guardians and trusted adults in knowing the warning signs of youth suicide, explains how to have important conversations and provides valuable resources to help keep their children safe. It includes developmentally appropriate information for youth of all ages including Elementary, Middle and High School-aged youth and Young Adults.

The QPR mission is to reduce suicidal behaviors and save lives by providing innovative, practical and proven suicide prevention training. The signs of crisis are all around us. We believe that quality education empowers all people, regardless of their background, to make a positive difference in the life of someone they know.

Our mission is to break the grip of emotional isolation that is killing our young people. We do this by expanding and delivering measurable, science-based programs that fill critical gaps and equip America’s youth with the skills they need to thrive.

We are a movement—an uprising of teens to help other teens. We’ve made it our mission to stop the suicide epidemic that’s taking the lives of our friends.

This toolkit assists high schools and school districts in designing and implementing strategies to prevent suicide and promote behavioral health. The toolkit includes tools to implement a multifaceted suicide prevention program that responds to the needs and cultures of students. Access the high school kit promotional flyer.

SOS Signs of Suicide is an affordable, evidence-based suicide prevention program that has demonstrated a 64% reduction in self-reported suicide attempts.

The Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide has compiled a list of Crisis and informational resources for parents and caregivers.

When a school community experiences the death of a student, there is often the very human tendency to want to do something in memory of the deceased student. These memorials can range from spontaneous tributes piled at lockers or parking spaces to more permanent, lasting tributes like placing plaques in halls or planting trees or gardens in the student’s name.  There may also be ceremonies or assemblies that bring together members of the school community to share memories and grieve together.

As an educator, we know you often identify students in your classroom who, for one reason or another seem vulnerable or at risk. But how do you know if what you’re seeing is part of the normal ups and downs of adolescence or something more severe?

Are you feeling depressed, anxious or alone? Do you feel your family or friends can’t understand what you are going through? Do you feel like you are a burden? Do you have a friend or a loved one experiencing these feelings?

Accurate data, up-to-date research, and knowledge of effective strategies and interventions are all essential to our ability to prevent suicide. This section provides information on the suicide problem and links to resources that can help you learn more.

Suicide Prevention: Step by Step was created through a partnership between Lines for Life and
the Willamette Education Service District.

Explaining suicide death to a child or teen can feel overwhelming and intimidating. As adults, we often want to protect them from the stigma and shame that can accompany such a death. Here are some tips for talking with children and teens about a suicide death and ways to support them in their grief.

Just released from the Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention

To support the shift to telehealth services in recent years, the Action Alliance produced a series of videos to facilitate the adoption of standard suicide risk screening practices in telehealth. The second video, launched on January 22, provides practical strategies for setting up virtual screening within an electronic health record portal and steps to take when virtual screening indicates that risk is present.

TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students) is working to make effective mental health services accessible to all students with school-based solutions that are cost-effective and sustainable.

Since 2000, the TLC has been providing support to communities affected by traumatic events such as homicide and illness; the most difficult being suicide.

​The TREP Project was launched in 2016 with a policy brief on the educational consequences of the chronic toxic stress of living in high crime communities. The TREP Project works to develop the individual and organizational capacity of educators and schools serving children growing up in neighborhoods that have high levels of toxic stress, such as violent crime, concentrated poverty, concentrated foster care involvement, and housing instability.

This newly designed online training consists of meetings and coursework over 4 weeks. The Umatter® for Schools Suicide Prevention national best practice program for suicide prevention was developed by the Center for Health and Learning. Umatter® can be adapted to state contexts and to meet statute requirements. The training has routinely been offered to school staff in grades 7-12, and we will also be including K-6 specific content.

AFSP supports increased awareness and promotion of mental health and suicide prevention resources on university and college campuses for faculty, staff, students, and their families.

Youth Aware of Mental health, also known as YAM, is a school-based program for young people ages 13 to 17, in which they learn about and explore the topic of mental health. YAM is an evidence-based program taking place in classrooms around the world. Students actively engage with the topic of mental health through role-play and student-led discussions.

Youth Mental Health First Aid is designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other caring citizens how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis. Youth Mental Health First Aid is primarily designed for adults who regularly interact with young people.