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Helping Faith-Based and Community Leaders Bring Hope and Healing

Faith communities are a natural setting for suicide prevention. Spiritual beliefs and practices tend to help people experience greater hope and meaning in their lives. Faith communities can also provide opportunities for developing positive relationships with others and can be an important source of support during difficult times.

The Mental Health Task Force of CRC and Reformed Church in America Disability Concerns ministries has curated resources on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention. In addition, we created a bulletin insert and worship resources to assist congregations in thinking about this painful but important subject that touches so many people.

Supporting Life Before, During, and After a Suicidal Crisis

Faith communities are a natural setting for suicide prevention. People who are religious tend to have greater moral objections to suicide. Also, spiritual beliefs and practices tend to help people feel greater hope and connectedness and find meaning in their lives. Therefore, as a faith community leader you have an important role to play.

A Toolkit for Schools

National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention

An Interview with Reverend Susan Gregg-Schroeder. A supportive faith community can provide hope, support and the feeling of being connected to something bigger

The phrase is stigmatizing in a lot of outdated, insensitive ways.

Addiction is a condition that causes someone to seek and use a harmful substance or drug constantly. They continue to pursue these harmful behaviors despite knowing the consequences and seeing how they affect those around them.

A personal story about what you need to know about suicide

Tips on how to help respond to a member who may be at risk for suicide

Te National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention convened a panel of leading suicide experts, youth influencers, and people with firsthand experience with suicide to discuss how social media is being used to reach teens in crisis.

Faith.Hope.Life. is an opportunity for every faith community in the United States, regardless of creed, to focus one Sabbath each year on the characteristics common to most faiths that also help prevent suicides.

This has been designated as the Tuesday of Mental Illness Awareness Week which is first week in October of each year. Mental illness networks and faith leaders are urged to work together so that they may recognize and prepare for this day in a way that works best for each faith community.

National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention

This handout contains helpful information for Faith Leaders on observable signs, communication, suicide, and referral to help someone suffering from mental illness.

Suicide rates in the United States have increased by 25-30 percent since 1999. This is particularly true for youth ages 12-24, with increases of approximately 30 percent over the same period.

This Prayer Guide will help faith leaders prepare to lead public prayers (or readings). The goal of these prayers is to bring support and healing to those affected by: psychological or emotional pain, suicidal thoughts, a suicide attempt, or the loss of a loved one by suicide.

This chart shows the number of suicide deaths by month and year, including the most recent provisional data available.

A Report of an Interfaith Suicide Prevention Dialogue

Recommendations for Religious Services & Other Public Memorial Observances

This handout contains a multitude of scriptures for clergy to use during the National Day of Prayer regarding multiple mental illness topics

Here are a few guidelines to follow in order to include someone living with mental illness into your congregation

The Role of Faith Communities in Suicide Prevention: A Guidebook for Faith Leaders