Risk factors are not warning signs

A risk factor may exist for months or years. A warning sign is a change in speech, mood, or behavior that may signal a developing or immediate crisis. Knowing risk factors should make us more attentive—not fatalistic.

Individual and relationship factors

  • Previous suicide attempt
  • Mental-health or substance-use concerns
  • Serious illness or chronic pain
  • Impulsive or aggressive tendencies
  • Relationship loss or high-conflict relationships
  • Bullying, violence, trauma, or social isolation

Community and societal conditions

  • Barriers to physical or behavioral health care
  • Community violence or discrimination
  • Economic stress
  • Unsafe media or community responses after a suicide
  • Easy access to lethal means among a person at risk

Protective relationships

Support from family, friends, partners, schools, faith communities, and other trusted groups can strengthen belonging. Protection is not only about having people nearby; it is about having people who respond, listen, and help connect someone with care.

Skills, care, and safer environments

  • Coping and problem-solving skills
  • Reasons for living
  • Cultural identity and belonging
  • Access to consistent, high-quality care
  • Reduced access to lethal means during periods of risk
  • Connected schools, workplaces, and communities

Build protection before a crisis

Save crisis numbers, identify trusted people, learn warning signs, make care easier to access, reduce shame around asking for help, and create a culture where direct questions and continued follow-up are normal.

Turn protective factors into actions

  • Schedule recurring check-ins instead of waiting for a crisis.
  • Save 988 and trusted contacts in the person’s phone.
  • Reduce practical barriers to care such as transportation, scheduling, cost questions, or child care.
  • Support connection with school, work, cultural, faith, peer, or community groups the person finds meaningful.
  • Use a professionally supported safety plan and revisit it when circumstances change.
  • Work with qualified help to create distance from dangerous items during periods of increased risk.