National Suicide Prevention Action Plan

May 2024

The Government of Canada is committed to suicide prevention and life promotion. The release of the National Suicide Prevention Action Plan (the Action Plan) lays the foundation to strengthen Canada’s collective response to suicide by enabling increased collaboration with partners to advance shared suicide prevention and life promotion priorities.

The Action Plan does not replace existing initiatives and strategies, including provincial and territorial and Indigenous-led strategies. Instead, it is intended to complement the work underway by identifying areas of shared interest that, in order to have greater impact, would benefit from increased collaboration.

The Action Plan acknowledges and respects Indigenous rights to self-determination and recognizes existing Indigenous-led strategies that are tailored to the distinct, culturally-specific needs of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.

The Vision

Fewer lives are lost to suicide and people and communities in Canada are supported in their wellbeing through life promotion and evidence-based suicide prevention approaches.

Strategic Objectives

• Understanding: Increase understanding and knowledge of suicide and related behaviour to develop actions based on the best available evidence and experience.
• Empowerment: Empower communities, health and mental health providers and individuals with resources and tools to prevent and respond to suicide and related behaviours by ensuring people in Canada know where, how and when to access supports.
• Engagement: Increase collaboration by undertaking ongoing, meaningful engagement with partners, stakeholders and populations with higher risks of suicide, to inform priorities and enable the co-development of future actions.

Implementation Principles

• Evergreen: Importance of iterative approach, creating space for further collaboration with partners.
• Momentum: Builds on existing progress, including the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline, for continued improvement.
• Equity: Recognizes challenges faced by certain populations and communities most impacted and the need for tailored actions.

Pillars of action

The Action Plan is an evergreen plan that identifies key areas of action over the next three years across 4 pillars:

1. Data and monitoring

Working with partners to improve completeness and timeliness of data, streamline data sharing with partners and better understand data gaps and needs.

2. Research and Evaluation

Building on current evidence, identify research gaps in suicide and its prevention, including opportunities for implementation and knowledge mobilization, to inform further research efforts, especially for populations and communities most impacted by suicide.

3. Supports and Services

Support the creation, dissemination and utilization of suicide prevention tools and resources, and raise awareness of life promotion, suicide and its prevention.

4. Governance

Establish governance mechanisms to advance and sustain progress across all pillars of action, as well as ensure meaningful engagement and cooperation through existing mechanisms.

Working with partners

This Action Plan aims to bring together partners including provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, suicide prevention stakeholders and experts and those most impacted by suicide to collectively address this public health issue. Together, we can build upon community strengths and improve suicide prevention and life promotion efforts. To be successful, we need to understand what works for suicide prevention, in what context and for whom. Sharing these findings can help effectively inform and guide impactful suicide prevention efforts.

The National Suicide Prevention Action Plan is available upon request. Please contact suicideprevention@phac-aspc.gc.ca for more information.