Our Priorities
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) brings together the best leaders, experts, and resources from the public and private sectors to steward and advance the goals and objectives of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (National Strategy)—the roadmap for a comprehensive approach to preventing suicide.
In its role as steward for the National Strategy, the Action Alliance is responsible for setting a shared vision and approach for identifying and coordinating opportunities to build, scale, and strengthen the national response to suicide.
Learn more about our Strategic Plan.
Messaging and Communications
Develop, disseminate, and align the field around research-informed messages to spur change.
Action Alliance Priority: Messaging and Communications
Learn more about our Messaging & Communications Advisory Group.
Suicide prevention messaging plays a critical role in shaping understanding, reducing risk, and encouraging help-seeking. When aligned and thoughtfully framed, communication can promote hope, resilience, and action across communities.
Watch this video for more information.
The Action Alliance is working to advance a more coordinated national approach to suicide prevention messaging, promoting consistency, clarity, and accessibility across sectors. This includes efforts to align messaging, support safe and effective communication practices, and translate research into practical guidance for the field.
Key areas of focus include:
- Engaging key messengers: News media, entertainment media, and public messengers
- Promoting safe and effective messaging: Supporting communications that encourage help-seeking and reduce risk
- Advancing priority topics: Including lethal means safety, data-driven decision-making, and upstream suicide prevention
- Moving Suicide Prevention Upstream: From Concept to Action is one example of this work, offering tools and strategies to address the root causes of suicide before crises occur.
Continue to check back for more information on how the Action Alliance will develop, disseminate, and align the field around research-informed messages to spur change through our Messaging and Communications Strategic Priority.
The Action Alliance and its partners seek to improve messaging by focusing on three key groups: public messengers, news media, and entertainment media.
Public Messengers
Many groups—nonprofit organizations, businesses, charitable foundations, and others—routinely disseminate messages about suicide in websites, social media, educational materials, and other print and digital communications. It is important that this information be conveyed in ways that support suicide prevention rather than increase suicide risk.
The Action Alliance’s Framework for Successful Messaging provides guidance and tools and outlines four critical areas to consider when messaging to the public about suicide. This resource can be used by anyone who develops and disseminates suicide-related content.
The 988 Messaging Framework provides general guidance about when and how to develop messaging about 988.
988 Formative Research is an important starting point for 988 messaging efforts. It is intended to produce insights that can be used by the field to make research-informed decisions about how to encourage help-seeking, including use and/or access to 988.
Learn more about 988 Formative Research.
News and Entertainment Media
Research has found that how news media reports on suicide and how entertainment media portrays suicide can either promote hope and help-seeking or increase hopelessness and contagion risk. As part of its efforts to change the conversation about suicide to one of hope and resilience, the Action Alliance has collaborated with members of the news and entertainment media to effectively develop news coverage and on-screen depictions that educate the public about suicide and suicide prevention.
News media: The Action Alliance is committed to working with news media to tell authentic stories of hope and resiliency, for example:
Entertainment media: In collaboration with entertainment partners, the Action Alliance seeks to equip content creators, scriptwriters, and producers with the tools and resources to tell more balanced and authentic stories involving suicide and suicide prevention. Authentic and thoughtful portrayals reflecting best practice guidance can support suicide prevention efforts by preventing contagion, encouraging help-seeking, connecting those in crisis with resources, and ultimately changing the way viewers think and talk about suicide.
Resources include the following:
- Mental Health Media Guide – A groundbreaking, comprehensive resource for content creators designed to help expand positive mental health portrayals
- National Recommendations for Depicting Suicide – Recommendations from the Action Alliance to help content creators, scriptwriters, and producers tell more balanced and authentic stories involving suicide and suicide prevention
- Collaborations in entertainment messaging – A collection of stories about the Action Alliance’s past work
Positive social connections have been identified as an important protective factor for suicide. When you take action to build connectedness and #BeThere for others, hope becomes a reality.
The majority of adults (91%) in the U.S. believe that suicide can be prevented, at least some of the time, and 95% of adults in the U.S. would take action if someone close to them was thinking about suicide, according to a national poll released by the Action Alliance and partners in 2024.
These findings, which build upon surveys conducted in 2022, 2020, 2018, and 2015, underscore the importance of equipping people with the tools and resources needed to feel empowered to have conversations about mental health and suicide prevention, and to take steps to care for their own mental health.
Amplifying Hopeful, Action-Oriented Messaging
The Action Alliance works collectively with its partners to amplify existing campaigns that encourage people to build connection, support one another, and take action to prevent suicide.
For other information and resources to support suicide prevention messaging, please review the CDC’s Suicide Prevention Communication Playbook, and AFSP's Suicide and Safe Storytelling Studio.
Suicide Prevention Month 2026
Throughout September, the Action Alliance and our partners will share hopeful, action-oriented suicide prevention messages and resources using #SPM26 to help connect and amplify the conversation.
For additional ideas and resources to support your Suicide Prevention Month efforts, explore Ideas for Action from SPRC, SAMHSA's Suicide Awareness Month Toolkit, Defense Suicide Prevention Office (DSPO) Suicide Prevention Month Communications Toolkit, and the Action Alliance's Framework for Successful Messaging.
Suicide Prevention Month 2026 E-Blasts:
- Coming soon!
Through a series of e-blasts, the Action Alliance helps equip organizations with the necessary resources, tools, and events to plan for and participate in this important national conversation.
Sign-up for our email updates to get all of our Suicide Prevention Month news in the future.
Suicide Prevention Month (#SPM26) Calls to Action
- Take action to prevent suicide in your community.
- #BeThere for those who are affected by suicide.
- Use best practices for effective messaging about suicide prevention.
Opportunities to Engage in Suicide Prevention Month (#SPM26)
- September 8: 988 Day
- September 13-19: National Suicide Prevention Week
- September 14-18: Construction Suicide Prevention Week
- September 10: World Suicide Prevention Day
- September 10: National American Indian/Alaska Native Hope for Life Day
- September 17: National Physician Suicide Awareness Day
- September 24 - 26: National First Responder Suicide Awareness Days
About Action Alliance
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance) is the public-private partnership charged with championing suicide prevention as a national priority. The Action Alliance has the unique ability to engage and unify passionate organizations and leaders in all sectors to collaborate toward a national and comprehensive approach to suicide prevention.
Learn more about Our Strategy.
