Creating Hope Together: Scotland's Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2026-2029

Outcome 1

Outcome 1: The environment we live in promotes conditions which protect against suicide risk – this includes our psychological, social, cultural, economic and physical environment.

Priority: Build a whole of Government and whole society approach to address the social determinants which have the greatest link to suicide risk.

Why is this important?

We know that there are a range of social, economic and environment factors that impact on mental health and suicide risk and, evidence tells us that action is needed across a range of policy areas in order to reduce inequalities and prevent suicide deaths, in particular policies that affect structural determinants of suicide risk. As well as taking action to influence the development of these policies nationally and locally, we also need to work collaboratively with organisations who can help mitigate their impact on individuals and communities. Creating environments which protect against suicide risk also means that we need to take steps to improve safety specific places (which we call ‘Locations of Concern’) and limit access to lethal means of suicide.

What do we need to do?

We need to work across government – national and local – and with our communities to address the complex factors involved in creating conditions that can increase suicide risk or – conversely – promote wellbeing and ‘liveable lives^[6]’. We will do this through collaborative action with a wide range of partners, including public bodies, businesses and social enterprises, third sector, academia, people with lived and living experience and community organisations. This is part of Scotland’s broader approach to prevention and early intervention as promoted through our Population Health Framework. It builds on wider work to address inequalities and promote mental wellbeing and recognises that we all have a part to play in creating an environment that protects against suicide risk.

Building on our work since 2022

We have already made solid progress in better understanding how government and society can work together to tackle the inequalities that contribute to suicide risk, reduce risk at locations of concern, and promote more responsible reporting of suicide in the media.

For example, we have:

• produced a framework for prioritising areas for initial focus for the ‘whole of government and society’ approach to suicide prevention, and undertaken a review of grey literature to add to the academic evidence, practitioner insights and lived and living experience insights which inform our approach
• carried out good practice studies, by identifying where work is taking place locally on key issues, and potentially having an impact on suicide prevention, or mitigating against suicide risk, and using this to determine where early intervention measures could have biggest impact
• engaged with people working on suicide prevention in their community on ‘Locations of Concern’, focusing on identifying local issues and barriers to making these locations safer, understanding what has worked well and what improvements would look like. This resulted in refreshed national guidance on locations of concern
• delivered media and communications training to journalists, elected politicians, communications professionals, community workers, and Sheriffs, resulting in positive feedback and frequent requests from more varied audiences

What impact do we want to have?

Going forward, we will take focused, evidence-led action to address the unequal suicide risk across Scotland’s population. Building on the evidence we have already gathered on social factors that can lead to higher risk of suicide, we will work with communities and across national and local government to ensure this evidence is understood, tested and applied.

We will also expand our understanding of effective prevention and early intervention in these areas, identifying the conditions that protect against and help reduce suicide risk. This will support work to scale up and embed effective community-based approaches. Through this work, we aim to strengthen the protective factors that can make the greatest difference across Scotland’s diverse communities.

In this action plan we will:

• strengthen connections and agree shared actions with key policy areas across national and local government which will have the greatest impact to reducing suicide risk and build protective factors and that promote wellbeing
• protect against suicide by creating safer environments and practices
• promote safe and responsible communication about suicide in the media and online
• help to raise awareness of how media and public narrative about wider issues can impact on mental health and suicidality

How Will We Do This?

Address the inequalities of suicide by embedding suicide prevention in our wider policies, services and communities

In Annex A of our first action plan, we listed a range of policy areas across government which had committed to taking forward actions to contribute to suicide prevention. This has helped create a broad base for our suicide prevention work and has enabled us to demonstrate how wider policies and services can play a part in our ‘whole of government and society’ approach to suicide prevention.

Over this action plan, we will focus efforts on specific policy areas – those whose work has the greatest potential to tackle the inequalities of suicide by taking focused, evidence-led action to address the unequal suicide risk across Scotland’s population. In doing so, we will seek to address the conditions that can make people’s lives more ‘liveable’ as a vital part of our suicide prevention work^[7].

We will work with a range of partners to ensure that the evidence we have already gathered on the social factors that can lead to higher risk of suicide is widely understood and tested. We will also expand our understanding of effective prevention and early intervention in these areas, identifying conditions that help reduce suicide risk. This will support work to scale up and embed effective and supportive community-based approaches. Through this work, we aim to strengthen the protective factors that can make the greatest difference across Scotland’s diverse communities.

Over the next three years we will take forward this work in the following ways:

Address the wider factors that impact on suicide risk

1.1 Strengthen connections and agree shared actions with key policy areas in government (national and local) which evidence (academic and grey literature) tells us will have the greatest impact on reducing suicide risk and improving liveability particularly among more disadvantaged communities. This is likely to include key areas such as: poverty/child poverty; education; being care experienced; employment and employability; housing and homelessness; substance use; domestic abuse; and criminal justice.

1.2 Give particular consideration to the needs of people who may be at higher risk of suicide. This could be because they are living and/or working in higher risk circumstances or settings, or because they belong to a population group that places them at higher risk. We will also sharpen our focus on occupations which have higher rates of suicide. Our work will include a specific focus on people experiencing Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD^[8]). This will include working with a range of partners at national and local level involved in joint work on Public Protection.

1.3 Work collaboratively with national partners and local communities to explore and expand the evidence on conditions that reduce suicide risk and enhance liveability and to promote this. We will also identify and maximise opportunities to strengthen factors which have the biggest impact in protecting against suicide across communities. This work will include identifying successful early intervention measures, such as strengthening community responses for people facing hardship/disadvantage. We will build best practice studies of where this is already happening locally, and work to embed this practice across more settings.

Create safer environments that protect against suicide

1.4 Support implementation of the latest guidance on ‘Locations of Concern’, suicide clusters and memorials, including sharing learning and strengthening connections across partners.

1.5 Support implementation of recommendations from the Academic Advisory Group’s report on evidence-based actions to prevent suicide by specific methods, which includes recommendations on safe prescribing.

1.6 Work collaboratively at a national and a local level, to inform and strengthen policies and services relating to the built and natural environments, embedding suicide prevention measures wherever possible.

Promote safe and responsible communication about suicide

1.7 Improve reporting and public discussion of suicide to reduce suicide risk and promote positive and hopeful messaging. We will do this through awareness raising, targeted training and providing advice and resources about responsible and safe communication. This will be delivered to a wide range of audiences from journalists and politicians to social media users.

1.8 Raise awareness about access to harmful online content about suicide, exploring technological opportunities to prevent access and connecting people to support, including through continued collaboration to support implementation of the Online Safety Act. We will also be alert to new and emerging risks – as well as seeking to act on positive opportunities – presented by technological and digital developments (such as Artificial Intelligence).