Some important things to understand about suicide and suicidal ideation are:
Behaviour: Acting out a plan with intent to complete suicide e.g. Collecting pills, researched methods of lethality, gave away valuable, wrote a suicide note.
Completed suicide: The act of intentionally taking one’s own life.
Contagion: the process whereby one suicide or suicidal act within a school, community or geographic area increases the likelihood that others will attempt or die by suicide
Ideation: Thoughts or considerations about ending life, can be fleeting or involve detailed planning.
Intent: Where there is a desire to end life, or where this desire is a way of feeling able to cope.
Preparation: There is strong intent to end life and a plan of how to do it.
Self-harm: when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body without suicidal intent.
Suicidal gesture/attempt: A non-fatal self-directed potentially injurious behaviour, with any intent to die as a result of the behaviour. A suicide attempt may or may not result in injury.
