With the aim to highlight this issue and mark World Suicide Prevention Week, Suicide Prevention India Foundation, an NGO creating awareness about suicide prevention and WATConsult, the agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, launched a campaign Give Subtitles To Suicide.
According to World Health Organisation, suicide is an emerging and a serious public health issue in our country. The most vulnerable and affected age group is between 15-29 years. The suicide mortality rate per 100,000 population in India is 15.7 while the global average is 10.7.
The campaign focuses on the importance of identifying suicidal signs among the near and dear ones, as most of the people fail to identify these signs, while some who understand, don’t know how to deal with them.
The campaign leverages the popular subtitles feature on YouTube and Facebook. The campaign video revolves around the life of five college friends, has to be watched twice, first without and then with subtitles. When watched with subtitles, it showcases the fact that how some obvious suicidal signs get overlooked unintentionally and lead to suicide.
The agency also created a website to promote the QPR Gatekeeper Training Program by the NGO that trains a person to identify people at the risk of suicide by recognising early signs, providing necessary intervention and access to mental health services. The NGO will also be conducting offline activities with various colleges to create awareness and educate students about the programme.