(TW suicide) I love all the suicide prevention posts, but to me the “check in with your friends” language isn’t helpful. People don’t die because no-one checked in on them, and its not fair to their family members or friends to imply they could’ve been saved with a texr

Its’ also not fair to people who are suicidal to increase the helpless victim based language around mental illness. many of them are deeply loved, and acting like a check in would save them really minimizes a condition that is real, and multifactorial

the narrative blames people who are suicidal “how are you feeling this way when you are loved and supported?” and it blames their loved ones because “you couldve/shouldve done more to prevent this”

suicide prevention is about a lot more than hotlines and check ins. Suicide prevention is about access to quality mental health care for everyone, affordable housing, culturally competent providers, LGBTQ resources,

de stigmatizing seeking care for mental illness, destigmatizing men’s mental health, harm reduction for substance misuse, parenting classes, and more

ultimately suicide prevention is about creating a world where people don’t need to rely on 1 am phone calls to stay alive

i obviously don’t mean to minimize the importance of social factors and support, of course humans need love to survive. but we need to think about and talk about suicidality as a institutional problem not just a personal one

i think a few people are misinterpreting this thread to mean don’t reach out to your loved ones which is definitely not what i meant. of course reach out to your loved ones. these replies emphasize my point really well https://twitter.com/_umamimami_/status/1304532367491522560