HOW TO EMBED SUICIDE PREVENTION INTO POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
This guidance explains how sports organisations can make suicide prevention part of everyday governance, safeguarding, welfare and operational practice. It focuses on policy integration, clear responsibilities, ethical decision-making and accessible support so that athletes, coaches, staff and volunteers know how to respond to concerns and where to find help.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
Sports organisations can approach suicide prevention through a coordinated framework of strategy, policies, implementation plans and monitoring.
A strategy should set out the organisation’s vision and commitment to suicide prevention and mental wellbeing. It should be supported by senior leadership, with named accountability, appropriate resources and clear links to existing governance arrangements. Suicide prevention should be integrated into existing management systems, including safeguarding, health and safety, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), coaching standards, athlete welfare and wellbeing, rather than treated as a standalone activity.
Policies translate the strategy into practical responsibilities and procedures. Implementation plans should identify who is responsible, what actions are required and when they will be delivered.
Regular monitoring should assess whether policies and plans are being used in practice, whether resources remain sufficient and whether athletes, coaches, staff and volunteers can access appropriate support when they need it. Monitoring should also identify gaps, barriers to reporting concerns and learning from incidents.
POLICY INTEGRATION AND PROCEDURES
A suicide prevention policy should be integrated with and cross-referenced across relevant organisational policies. In a sporting environment these can include:
- Safeguarding, ethics and confidentiality
- Health & safety and organisational risk assessment
- EDI
- Athlete and staff consultation
- Complaints, grievances, disciplinary and appeals procedures
- Coaching standards and codes of conduct
- Communication and training
- Mental health, wellbeing and athlete welfare
- Crisis management and emergency response
- Individual suicide safety planning
- Bereavement, loss and trauma
- Absence, injury rehabilitation and return-to-training or work
- Selection, deselection and performance management
- Roles and responsibilities
- Monitoring and review
Embedding suicide prevention across these areas helps to make it part of everyday sporting practice and everyone’s responsibility, rather than the responsibility of a single safeguarding or welfare role.
Organisations should establish clear procedures, so that athletes, coaches, managers, volunteers and staff understand what to do when they are concerned about someone. Procedures should be simple enough to use during a difficult conversation or urgent concern. They should explain how concerns are recognised, who is contacted, what information is recorded, how risk is escalated and how follow-up support is arranged.
Procedures should include:
- CLEAR RESPONSIBILITIES AND COMMUNICATION – everyone should understand their role, who concerns should be reported to and where support can be accessed.
- RISK ASSESSMENT – organisational risk assessments should consider psychological as well as physical risks. Sporting circumstances – such as serious injury, deselection, loss of contract, disciplinary proceedings, performance pressures and retirement – can affect an individual’s identity, financial stability and sense of belonging and should be considered when planning support.
- TRAINING – all staff, coaches and volunteers should receive general suicide prevention awareness training. Managers, safeguarding and welfare leads should receive additional role-specific training. Appropriate first responders should be trained in verbal intervention and de-escalation.
- CONSULTATION – athletes, coaches, staff and volunteers should have opportunities to contribute to the development and review of policies and support arrangements.
- CRISIS RESPONSE – organisations should have clear procedures for responding when someone is thinking about or engaging in suicide behaviours. These should identify how to contact emergency services or mental health professionals, who takes responsibility internally and how the individual (and others affected) will be supported.
- SAFETY PLANNING – where appropriate, individual safety plans should be co-designed with the person concerned and identify sources of professional, organisational and personal support. (For a template, see BS 30480)
- SUPPORT DURING SIGNIFICANT SPORTING OR EMPLOYMENT EVENTS – additional consideration should be given to people experiencing disciplinary or performance procedures, serious injury, deselection, redundancy, loss of contract or retirement. Appropriate wellbeing support should form part of these processes.
- POSTVENTION – crisis plans should also address the response following a suicide. This should include appropriate communication with – and support for – teammates, coaches, staff, volunteers, witnesses, family and others affected.
Organisations should work with governing bodies, healthcare services, player associations and community organisations where appropriate, aligning their approach with relevant national and local suicide prevention frameworks. These partnerships should clarify referral routes, escalation processes and information-sharing expectations – as well as the support available before, during and after a crisis.
Integrating suicide prevention with existing management systems and regularly evaluating its impact, helps to ensure that arrangements remain effective and adaptable.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Suicide prevention policies and guidance should address important ethical considerations. The way suicide prevention is implemented matters as much as the polices themselves. Ethical practice helps organisations to respond to risk while protecting dignity, privacy, trust and access to support.
Athletes, coaches, managers and staff should understand how to respond to disclosures, when confidentiality can be maintained and when information might need to be shared because there is an immediate risk of harm.
Organisations should establish how sensitive information is recorded, stored and accessed, including records held by safeguarding, welfare, medical or HR teams.
Where someone expresses thoughts of suicide, they should be approached with sensitivity and respect. Open dialogue should be encouraged rather than imposing solutions, unless there is an immediate risk of harm.
Appropriate support should be available both to the individual making a disclosure and to the person receiving or responding to it.
Conversations should take place privately where possible and should involve empathy, active listening and open questions, while recognising cultural and individual differences around suicide, mental health and bereavement.
Athletes, coaches and colleagues can provide valuable support, but should recognise the limits of their role. They should not be expected to act as mental health professionals, and should know how to signpost or to refer someone to appropriate support.
Sporting organisations should also recognise the potential impact of power relationships. Athletes might be reluctant to disclose difficulties if they believe that this could affect selection, contracts, scholarships, playing opportunities or career progression. Seeking help should therefore be supported, and should not automatically be treated as a performance or capability issue.
SUPPORT FRAMEWORKS AND ACCESS ROUTES
Support frameworks should provide a network of care that extends beyond the initial response to a concern.
Athletes, coaches, staff and volunteers should be made aware of the support that is available, both within the organisation and externally. This should form part of induction and onboarding, coach education, safeguarding and health and safety training, with regular refreshers and ongoing communication.
Information should be readily available, visible and regularly updated. Support can include:
- Mental health, counselling and psychological services
- Mentoring and peer-support programmes
- Support groups, including bereavement support
- Employee or Player Assistance Programmes
- Awareness and education programmes
- Appropriately trained safeguarding, welfare or mental health contacts
- Signposting to community, local and national services
- Training for coaches, managers, staff and volunteers
Sport-specific support should also consider periods of transition or increased vulnerability, including injury and rehabilitation, deselection, loss of contract, transfer, retirement and transition out of competitive sport.
Support should be appropriate to the individual and the sporting environment. Organisations should recognise that mental wellbeing and sporting performance can be connected, while ensuring that the welfare of the individual is not considered solely through the lens of performance.
A consistent, organisation-wide approach helps leaders, coaches, athletes, staff and volunteers understand their responsibilities, respond to concerns and find appropriate support.
Guidance and support should be adapted to the specific sporting environment, considering factors such as age, competitive level, professional or amateur status, safeguarding responsibilities and access to specialist support.
