In France, according to 2nd gear of the National Suicide Observatory published in 2016, there are nearly 10,000 deaths per year by suicide and over 200,000 attempts. Until February 16, conferences, debates and evenings of exchanges will take place organized in several large cities of France by the National Union for the Prevention of Suicide (UNPS). This year, the focus is particularly on all the actors, visible and invisible, who take part in this prevention.
Towards a complementarity of prevention actors
Actors described as “invisible” are the first to be taken into account. They correspond to families, friends, or colleagues and also to all the individuals who are part of the daily life of these people in great suffering. They are generally not aware that their presence and their listening can weigh heavily in the balance. Conversely, the so-called “visible” players are associations whose aim is to promote or recreate social ties, the most important being SOS Amitié. The association, labeled by the Ministry of Health and recognized as being of public utility since 1967, now has 1,500 volunteer listeners answering more than 2,000 calls or messages a day.
Those prevention effortscarried out over several decades, have contributed to reducing the number of deaths by suicide, in particular for young people and the elderly for whom communication actions have been reinforced. During these days will be discussed, for example, questions of complementarity between all these actors, a better definition of the “invisible” and how they contribute to suicide prevention.
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