Tips for Responsible Reporting Around Suicide

Words Have Weight

• Be sure to use person first language, such as “person with schizophrenia” rather than “a schizophrenic.”
• News stories can cause suicide contagion. Use “increasing rates” rather than “suicide epidemic.”
• State that an individual “died by suicide,” or “take one’s life,” not “committed suicide.” Suicide is a public health issue, not a crime.
• Don’t refer to a suicide attempt as either successful or failed.
• The reasons for suicide are complex. Don’t attribute suicide to any definitive causes.

Celebrate, Not Sensationalize

• Maintain a tone of grief and celebration of the person’s life.
• Omit details about the suicide, such as method or location.
• Avoid front-page coverage, as well as sensational headlines and content, including photos of memorials, suicide notes, or social media posts from the deceased.
• Avoid interviewing suicide loss survivors, who may need a few years before they can tell their story in an empowered way.

Connect Community to Care

• Share a message of hope and alternative coping mechanisms.
• Connect individuals to mental health resources.
• Include the warning signs of suicide and what to do.
• Discuss solutions to address mental health challenges

Self-Care for Journalists

Journalists experience trauma beyond the frontlines of war. There’s the COVID-19 pandemic, terrorism, natural disasters, shootings, and other traumatic events, not to mention being in the direct line of fire at protests, for example. Journalists have an increased risk of developing PTSD, when there is an avoidant coping style, a personal history of trauma, high intensity and frequency of exposure to stressors. Additionally, Pew Research shows that 77% of newsroom employees are white, which means journalists of color are fatigued by code switching.

Supportive news editors can take preventative measures, like identify signs of mental health challenges, like substance use, missed deadlines, conflicts with colleagues, and trouble sleeping. Editors can also refer colleagues to mental health resources and counseling.

Strategies for Building Resilience:

• Talk to colleagues if you’re struggling and need extra support
• Take care of your body and mind with exercise, yoga, or meditation
• Invest in healthy nutrition, sleep, breaks, and staying socially connected
• Take time off to recover from traumatic events regularly to prevent crisis and burnout
• Keeping your laptop and phone out of your sleeping space
• Start a work journal to acknowledge all you’ve accomplished each day
• Maintaining a positive ritual when a story is completed, like taking a shower or lighting a candle

Tips for Editors/Managers:

• Create mental health guidelines for when a journalist is showing warning signs
• Create a mental health committee to spark conversation about mental health in the workplace
• Offer peer support, so that journalists can connect and talk about this common experience
• Bring in outside resources if you’re unable to create these mental health supports and community internally

Book A Mental Health Expert

The experts on our team can offer an interview over the phone, Zoom, or at your studio. To request an interview, email jreres@naminyc.org.

Matt Kudish is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City. NAMI-NYC is one of the largest NAMI affiliates and helps families and individuals affected by mental illness build better lives through education, support, and advocacy. Under Matt’s leadership NAMI-NYC has doubled its budget, staff, and impact, touching the lives of  thousands of individuals each year through its free programs and services.   

Named to City & State’s “Health Power” list for five consecutive years, Matt is a respected industry voice on issues surrounding mental health, mental illness, caregiving, peer-based support, and accessibility. Notable media coverage includes The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Thrive Global, CNN, ABC News, WABC-7, WNBC-4, NY-1, and more. Matt was also recognized as a Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Leader for advancing LGBTQ equality within the workplace and across New York City.

Matt received his Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University and his Master’s in Public Administration from New York University. He has taught at Columbia University’s School of Social Work and guest lectured at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work.

Expertise:

• State of 988 mental health hotline and mental health crisis response across New York City
• Value of family support programs on people living with serious mental illness (SMI)
• Impact of the pandemic on our collective mental health
• Mental health crisis impacting young people and the LGBTQ+ community

Lynnette Verges, LCSW-R is our Chief Operating Officer. Lynnette has over twenty years of leadership and direct practice experience in social services. As a clinician, Lynnette has worked with immigrant, homeless, and underserved communities, including individuals with severe mental illness, HIV+, and those who are medically fragile. Lynnette received her Master of Social Work from Hunter College and Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Niagara University.   

Expertise:

• Socio-economic and racial disparities in mental health care access across NYC
• Breaking stigma around mental illness in Black and brown communities
• Importance of mental health education in schools   

Languages: English, Spanish

Kimberly Blair, MPH is our Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, who recruits, trains and leads a group of over 180 Ambassadors in grassroots advocacy efforts. She currently serves as a Steering Committee Member of Correct Crisis Intervention Today-NYC (CCIT-NYC), a coalition of over 80 organizations calling for a peer-led, non-police response to NYC’s 200,000+ mental health crisis calls each year and is on the Legislative Committee of the Treatment Not Jails campaign. Kimberly holds her Master’s in Public Health specializing in Health Policy and Maternal Health from the Boston University School of Public Health and her Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Georgetown University. She identifies as both a mental health peer and supportive family member and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.  

Expertise:

• Diverting our community away from the criminal legal system, including crisis response without police intervention and closing Rikers by 2027
• Investment in supportive housing with wraparound services 
• Insurance coverage for people living with addiction and mental health challenges  
• Addressing maternal mental health disparities for Black and brown mothers

Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese 

Additional Resources

Reporting

• Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma
• The Carter Center
• Mindframe
• Reporting on Suicide

Self-Care

• Journalist Trauma Support Network
• Mental Health & Journalism Toolkit, International Journalists’ Network
• Self-Care and Trauma, International Women’s Media Foundation
• Self-Care Tips for News Media, Dart Center
• The Self-Investigation

Courses

• Journalism & Trauma, Poynter
• Responsible Reporting on Suicide (John Hopkins University)

Sources

Bedei, C. (8 January 2021). Taking time off to recover from trauma or burnout. IJNET. https://ijnet.org/en/resource/taking-time-recover-trauma-or-burnout.

Best Practices and Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide. (2022). Reporting on Suicide. https://reportingonsuicide.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ROS-One-PagerUpdated2022.pdf.  

Clay, R. (17 April 2020). Journalists as vicarious first responders. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/journalists-first-responders.

Daniszewski, J. (13 June 2018). How and when we report on suicides. AP. https://blog.ap.org/behind-the-news/how-and-when-we-report-on-suicides.

Fleck, A. (7 August 2023). The U.S. Military Suicide Crisis. Statista. https://www.statista.com/chart/30544/share-of-veterans-who-considered-suicide/.

Lewis, K.P. (8 January 2021). Mental health tips and resources for journalist. IJNET. https://ijnet.org/en/resource/mental-health-tips-and-resources-journalists.

Morell, R. (15 July 2020). Reporting and Resilience: How Journalists Are Managing Their Mental Health. Nieman Foundation at Harvard. https://nieman.harvard.edu/articles/reporting-and-resilience-how-journalists-are-managing-their-mental-health/.

Patrick, Wendy L. (17 January 2023). How Journalists Experience Vicarious Trauma. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-bad-looks-good/202301/how-journalists-experience-vicarious-trauma.

Preventing Suicide: Information for Journalists and Others Writing About Suicide. World Health Organization.

Ross, A., Paton, E., & Blanchard, M. (24 August 2020). Media reporting on mental illness, violence and crime needs to change. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/media-reporting-on-mental-illness-violence-and-crime-needs-to-change-144856.

Safe reporting guidelines for media. AFSP. https://afsp.org/safereporting/.  

Saunders, H. and Panchal, N. (4 August 2023). A Look at the Latest Suicide Data and Change Over the Last Decade. KFF. https://www.kff.org/other/issue-brief/a-look-at-the-latest-suicide-data-and-change-over-the-last-decade/.

Savchuck, K. (18 January 2018). 5 Tips for Journalists Covering Mental and Behavioral Health. NeimanStoryboard. https://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/5-tips-for-journalists-covering-mental-and-behavioral-health/.

Thibert, A. (10 March 2023). A Guide to Responsible Reporting. Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2023/03/10/a-guide-to-responsible-reporting-on-suicide/.

Udavant, S. (6 June 2023). ‘Crazy,’ ‘Unhinged’ and Other Stigmatizing Words Journalists Should Avoid. NBC. https://nbcuacademy.com/crazy-unhinged-mental-health-journalism/.

Words Matter: Reporting on Mental Health Conditions. American Psychiatric Association. https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/reporting-on-mental-health-conditions.