If you are in distress, you can call or text 988 at any time. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1 or go to your local emergency department.

Home › Resources › Toolkit for people who have been impacted by a suicide attempt

Toolkit for people who have been impacted by a suicide attempt

This resource was published in 2018. The data may be out of date.

What it is

The Mental Health Commission of Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, the Centre for Suicide Prevention, the Public Health Agency of Canada, along with an Advisory Committee comprised of people with lived experience related to suicide, have developed toolkits to support people who have been impacted by suicide. One toolkit is tailored for people who have attempted suicide, and the other is focused on resources for people who have lost someone to suicide.

In the summer of 2017, we conducted an online survey to elicit feedback from people who have been affected by suicide. With over 1,000 responses, the survey helped us gain a better understanding of what topics, content areas, resources, and information were important to include in the toolkits.

The content

There is no right or wrong way to seek help. This toolkit is not designed to be an exhaustive list of the very wide variety of resources available across Canada for support. This toolkit is a summary of the tools that have resonated most with the hundreds of people who completed our online survey and resources from a literature review completed by the Centre for Suicide Prevention.

If you are not finding the tools and resources that resonate most with you, you may consider talking with someone. You may wish to connect with a trained volunteer by contacting your local distress centre or Kids Help Phone.

Language

Many respondents indicated a preference for “people-first” language as opposed to “survivorship language”. For this reason, we sought to avoid this language within the toolkit. That said, survivorship language resonates with many and therefore, we included links to resources that use this language. Please note that the toolkits are not intended to replace a conversation. If you or someone you know is experiencing distressing thoughts or thoughts of suicide, please contact your local distress centre or Kids Help Phone.

Feedback Form

Hey, thanks for checking out this resource. After you’ve seen it, we’d love to learn a bit more about your interests and how you found us. Was the information what you looking for? Was it helpful? We’ll use any feedback you provide to further improve what we do.

Are you willing to be contacted within 3 to 6 months for a short follow-up survey?
In case of “Yes” – please provide an email address
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SHARE THIS PAGE

RELATED

Review our Assessment Framework for Mental Health Apps — a national framework containing key standards for safe, quality, and effective mental health apps in Canada.

To help expand the use of e-mental health services, we developed four online learning modules based on our Toolkit for E-Mental Health Implementation, in collaboration with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Stepped Care 2.0© (SC2.0) is a transformative model for organizing and delivering evidence-informed mental health and substance use services.

The MHCC partnered with the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) to examine what is currently known about the relationship between alcohol use and suicide, who is most...

The MHCC partnered with the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) to examine what is currently known about the relationship between alcohol use and suicide, who is most...