Your suicide prevention efforts will more likely be effective if they are based on the values, needs, and strengths of the groups you are trying to reach. Suicide prevention efforts should be respectful and responsive to groups’ beliefs, practices, and cultural and linguistic needs and preferences. Factors to consider include not only race and ethnicity, but also age, education, physical and mental health, gender identity, sexual orientation, occupation, religion, and other characteristics.

Actions to consider:

• Research and understand the cultural context of the community targeted by your program.
• Ensure that your team includes a diverse representation of members from your target population throughout the planning, implementation, and evaluation processes.
• Tailor information and resources to respectfully address your target population’s values, beliefs, culture, and language. Use alternative formats (e.g., audiotape, large print, storytelling) whenever appropriate.
• Create an open dialogue with group members to allow cultural considerations to be communicated, such as preferences regarding personal space, geography, familiarity, and terminology (i.e., words that should be used or avoided).
• Explore our Best Practices Registry, a library of suicide prevention programs and interventions that incorporate best practices, national frameworks and culturally relevant approaches.

See the sections of our website on Populations and Settings to learn more about suicide prevention and specific groups. In particular, check out the sections on Racial and Ethnic Groups; American Indian/Alaska Native Settings; and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People.

Recommended Resources

Creating Linguistically and Culturally Competent Suicide Prevention Materials

This guide is designed to help public health practitioners produce suicide prevention materials for specific cultural a...

TIP 59: Improving cultural competence

This guideline helps providers and administrators understand the role of culture in the delivery of substance abuse and mental health services.

Community readiness for community change

This manual will help communities and tribes understand and measure how ready they are to address a particular issue like suicide, and how to use that knowledge to stimulate change. 

Guidance for Culturally Adapting Gatekeeper Trainings

This tool provides a series of questions to guide the cultural adaptation of gatekeeper training programs, which will help improve the community ownership, use, and effectiveness of the training. The questions included address the audience, training delivery, shared group considerations, follow-up, and referral networks.

Suicide Prevention Resource Center's Best Practices Registry

SPRC's library of suicide prevention programs and interventions that incorporate best practices, national frameworks an...