Responding to Self-Harm and Suicidal Content

From the IFTAS Trust & Safety Library - supporting volunteer moderators in the Fediverse

Best Practice Guide #

Safe and supportive online spaces provide an opportunity for people to talk about suicidal feelings openly and without stigma, and to get help and support. The right response, at the right time, can be lifesaving.

The guide below sets out a recommended best-practice approach to responding to suicidal posts online. It is designed for community managers, moderators or individuals running or facilitating a community online for adults, and will help you provide a safe and supportive response to someone in crisis online.

This document has been developed through consultation with leading experts in online communities, mental health and suicide, as well as community members with experience of seeking support for suicidal feelings online.

Download Responding to suicidal content online: Best-practice guidelines

See also: The Support for Suicidal Individuals on Social and Digital Media free toolkit – developed by the staff of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to help digital community managers and social media platforms establish safety policies for helping individuals in suicidal crisis

Reddit Moderator Guidance #

Reddit’s guidance for moderators has excellent community resources for dealing with self-harm and suicidal content.

Community Management Resources #

Conversations Matter is a practical online resource to support safe and effective community discussions about suicide.

Developer Resources #

Koko’s Suicide Prevention Kit provides free resources for everyone in your online community — right when they need it the most. Integration is quick and easy. Their Online Suicide Prevention Kit has two components: A native library (Python, Ruby, Go, PHP) that detects high risk terms and phrases and an embed that links to free resources and online interventions.

They also maintain an evidence-based keyword list you can use to review terms you’re seeing and.

Updated on 2024-10-26
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