On Suicide Prevention Month, Lived Experience Advocates Speak Out for Non-Carceral Support

By Leah Harris

Every September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and lived experience advocates are speaking up for anti-carceral approaches to supporting people who live with suicidal intensity. Over the past decade, the voices of lived experience and suicide attempt survivors has grown exponentially in power and influence. These advocates consistently demand voluntary, non-coercive care that honors their identities, culture, voice, choice, and bodily autonomy. Here is just a small selection of some of the voices and organizations speaking out for radical change in how we understand and respond to suicide.

The Institute for Development of Human Arts, an organization composed of “mental health workers, clinicians, psychiatrists, current and prior users of mental health services, advocates, artists, and survivors of trauma and adversity, who are interested in exploring the link between personal and societal transformation,” highlighted their core curriculum offerings developed by people with lived experience of suicidal intensity. In an Instagram post, they noted “...Mainstream approaches to suicide prevention tend to center force and coercion, whereas compassionate care is about building a world worth living in and dismantling the systems of oppression that create distress. Suicide is encouraged and reinforced by social, cultural, historical, and political systems. Acts, thoughts, and expressions of suicide are rational forms of resistance in a deeply unjust society where so many people don’t have their basic needs met. Rather than invest in systems based on force and coercion, we need community care approaches that help people survive.”

Ysabel Garcia, founder of the training consultancy Estoy Aquí LLC, took to Instagram to write about her experience of involuntary hospitalization for suicidal intensity. “At age 15, I was involuntarily hospitalized due to my thoughts of death. Over the next 2 years, I faced 4 more involuntary hospitalizations. These experiences were far from helpful. Being in solitary confinement, encountering law enforcement, and enduring physical restraints was not the ‘help’ I had in mind. While some may have positive experiences with forced or consensual hospitalizations, I will not stop discussing the violence I experienced for my logical reaction against oppression. I will never forget.” Research shows that people are 100 times more likely to attempt suicide following an inpatient hospitalization.

The Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM), a “national training, movement building, and grant making institution that is dedicated to the healing, wellness, and liberation of Black and marginalized communities,” posted a graphic of graffiti where “suicide prevention” was crossed out and “support people” was added in. They posted on Instagram: “September is #SuicidePreventionMonth and we are affirming the need to hold PEOPLE at the center of this conversation. When we support PEOPLE with free health care, including healing and wellness circles and therapy— fresh foods, quality education and robust living wages—we’ll be able to see an improvement in overall mental health of our country and be better able to support our folks who are having a hard time being here.”

Thrive Lifeline, a “501(c)(3) grassroots organization dedicated to changing the landscape of mental health support for people with intersecting marginalized identities,” shared a post contrasting carceral to non-carceral approaches to suicide. “Traditionally, carceral approaches emphasize keeping somebody alive at all costs (often ‘contained’ away from the rest of society), rather than respecting autonomy at all costs. Non-carceral approaches to suicide, on the other hand, prioritize honoring a suicidal person’s needs and autonomy. Community, peers, and other consent-based support structures can come alongside a person to help them meet their needs.” 

Anti-carceral crisis support resources:

• Project LETS
  
• Fireweed Collective
  
• Thrive Lifeline
  
• Inclusive Therapists
  

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Leah Harris is a non-binary, queer, neurodivergent, disabled Jewish writer, facilitator, and organizer working in the service of truth-telling, justice-doing, and liberation. They’ve had work published in the New York Times, CNN, and Pacific Standard. You can learn more about their work at their website and follow them on Instagram.