This important announcement is featured on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website:
“988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. While some areas may be currently able to connect to the Lifeline by dialing 988, this dialing code will be available to everyone across the United States starting on July 16, 2022.”

Understanding suicide prevention and suicide as a health threat or risk factor is not a training topic that is easy to address in schools, but it is necessary and perhaps should be included more frequently in health education curricula planning. The topic area encompasses messaging and reaction to a suicide death or attempt in the school community, and emergency mental health aimed at youth with suicidal thoughts or intentions. The related topic areas include many topic areas of mental health including traumatic grief, PTSD, suicidal ideation, suicidal plans, and risk factors including history of attempts, or having peers or family members who have taken, or attempted to take their own lives (this is not an exhaustive list).

Members of a scholastic community should know that having educators become more than a little familiar with the frequency with which the topic comes up in the scholastic setting may be important to prevention and addressing those at risk. Suicide gets many mentions in literature, theater, music, art and history. So it is useful to not only know about prevention, but also little about these exposures and the messaging youth receive through trending news media, popular culture, and social media. It is a difficult training topic because and many educators feel a natural aversion to learning more. These feelings are entirely normal, and for some individual educators avoiding the topic area is a means of self-preservation. No educator should be forced to “teach” emergency mental health, or lead a class in suicide prevention curricula, for example. Those educators who choose to take on this responsibility in school communities may already have an understanding of this topic, or feel obliged because of loss due to suicide. This topic area has many facets and our understanding is never complete. Most educators should have a basic training in how to handle discourse on the topic if it comes up in the classroom setting, be it in a passing reference during a literature class, or when youth are reacting to a reported event including a death of a popular cultural icon.

Some basic educator/communicator preparation is better than no preparation. Our team of health educators have compiled a learning opportunity about resources, communications, and emergency mental health with school and youth populations. However, we also mention that in any emergency “The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can and does help prevent suicide. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis, by offering resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States.“