Many have experienced fear, anxiety, and uncertainty due to the pandemic, leading people to become increasingly comfortable talking about their mental health. But, the topic of suicide – a complex piece of the mental health conversation – is still scary for many people.
Research has revealed much about what leads someone to suicide, ways we can help prevent it, and resources that can empower communities to address this leading cause of death – in short, that together, we can help stop suicide.
We’ve seen incredible progress around the importance of mental health in the past few years, but know there’s still work to be done when it comes to suicide prevention. Inspired by this, we leveraged Facebook to share information, start conversations, and provide education around the topic of suicide prevention.
On World Suicide Prevention Day, AFSP hosted World Suicide Prevention Day Live: an all-day Facebook Live event that brought together communities and perspectives from around the world at one place and time, and also raised money for our organization, which goes toward further research, advocacy efforts, education and loss support programs, and more. We far surpassed our goal of securing 10 panelists for three hours on Facebook live and featured over 30 panelists with diverse backgrounds across research, entertainment, advocacy and more, during an eight hour livestream. This allowed us to diversify the topic area and reach people at different times of day, making the event more inclusive in both ability to tune in and breadth of perspective shared.
Bringing community together to create opportunities for connectedness, storytelling and deeper conversations about mental health was at the heart of our strategy, and we needed to do so in a way that respected comfort levels surrounding distancing through digital engagement opportunities.
To do this, we leveraged Facebook Live to hold bring together communities across the country and the world at one place, one time on the organization’s national Facebook page, @afspnational, for the #StopSuicide: A World Suicide Prevention Day Livestream – an action-packed line-up of inspiring conversations about mental health and suicide prevention, and highlight research, entertainment, advocacy, education and more.
The event, which also coincided with National Suicide Prevention Week (NSPW), featured AFSP experts, advocates, celebrities, and artists to help save lives and honor those impacted by suicide. With a campaign mantra of “Together, we can help #StopSuicide,” AFSP encouraged individuals to take that next step in having deeper conversations to learn more about what leads someone to suicide in order to help prevent it – and get involved in ways that are meaningful to them.
On World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th, AFSP hosted the all-day Facebook Live event from 12pm to 8pm ET, bringing together communities and perspectives from around the world at one place and one time. The event featured over 30 panelists with diverse backgrounds across research, entertainment, advocacy and more. Guest appearances will also be made by singer Normani, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh; American clothing designer Kenneth Cole, founder of the Mental Health Coalition; trans activist and model, Jari Jones.
The event held panel discussions on how to take the conversation deeper and talk about suicide, preventing youth suicide, mental health in communities of color, men’s mental health, and more.
Throughout the campaign, we were able to successfully engage individuals, communities, organizations, and media with a global reach to raise awareness for suicide prevention and broaden the conversation around mental health.
When reaching out to partners to help us execute this important event, we received so much support that we were able to far surpass our goal of securing 10 panelists for three hours on Facebook live and featured over 30 panelists with diverse backgrounds across research, entertainment, advocacy and more, during an eight hour livestream. This allowed us to diversify the topic area and reach people at different times of day, making the event more inclusive in both ability to tune in and breadth of perspective shared.
The event reached a total of 245,260 people – surpassing our reach goal by 150%
Plus, we raised $37,795 – again surpassing our goal of raising $30,000 – via email and our social media.
Our World Suicide Prevention Day Live also event resulted in:
130,300 Video Views
245,260 Reach
373,226 Impressions
5,923 Engagements
