WHO/Europe is hosting a webinar to explore suicide prevention strategies with a focus on strengthening access to care through a multisectoral approach.
Suicide remains a public health challenge in our Region and is a leading cause of death among young people aged 15–29. Over 150 000 people die by suicide each year – this is nearly 400 suicides every day.
Risk factors extend beyond mental disorders and include socio-economic and health-related issues such as loneliness, unemployment, chronic pain, abuse, discrimination and emergencies. Stigma often prevents people from accessing timely care, and while many people who are thinking of ending their life access healthcare, they are often missed or go unnoticed due to fragmented systems.
The webinar
This session will highlight how strengthening access to care through a multisectoral approach—connecting health, social services, education, workplaces and communities—can enhance prevention. It will explore:
- Improving access to timely care for at-risk individuals, supported by real-life case studies;
- Postvention strategies, from the standpoint of attempt survivors and people bereaved by suicide;
- Enablers and barriers for applying these strategies across various European settings.
Speakers will include representatives from health, education, welfare and social sectors, NGOs, academia, and people with lived experience.
To register for the webinar, please click the link.
About the series
This event is part of the WHO/Europe webinar series “Enough waiting: Reshaping mental health care”, organized under the EU-funded project “Addressing mental health challenges in the 27 European Union countries, Iceland and Norway”. The project supports countries in scaling up access to quality mental health care and preventive services, and fosters cross-sectoral collaboration to address suicide and other mental health challenges across the Region.