World Suicide Prevention Day 2013

World Suicide Prevention Day is held on September 10th each year as an initiative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), and is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) the theme for this years event is: "Stigma: A major Barrier to Suicide prevention." World Suicide Prevention day which started in 2003 aims to:

• Raise awareness that suicide is preventable
• Improve education about suicide
• Spread information about suicide
• Decrease stigmatization regarding suicide.

According to WHO there are about 20 people who have a failed suicide attempt for every one that is successful at a rate approximately one every 3 seconds. Suicide is the "most common cause of death for the people aged 15-24."Nearly 3000 people on average commit suicide daily, according to WHO.Also according to WHO,suicide accounts for nearly half of all violent deaths in the world. Brian Mishara, the former IASP president, noted that the number of people who die by suicide is expected to reach 1.5million per year by 2020.

World Suicide prevention Day worldwide events and activities aim to raise awareness that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death and include: launch of new government initiatives to prevent suicide, conferences, open days, educational seminars or public lectures, media programs promoting suicide awareness and prevention, training courses about suicide and depression awareness etc. This is also a time to re-affirm commitment to suicide prevention on world suicide prevention day.

Suicide is influenced by psycho-social, cultural and environmental risk factors that can be prevented through worldwide responses that address these main risk factors. There is strong evidence indicating that adequate prevention can reduce suicide rates thus the day promotes worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides. Suicide is a multi-determined phenomenon that occurs against the background of complex interacting biological, social, psychological and environmental risk and protective factors. Despite the complexity of this phenomenon, suicide can be prevented.