Towards a National Suicide Prevention Strategy for Singapore

One year ago, a bold commitment was made to bring together suicide survivors, researchers, practitioners, employers and community groups to develop a National Strategy on Suicide Prevention in Singapore. Calling for ‘no life to be lost to suicide’, SG Mental Health Matters led a ground-up initiative named “Project Hayat” (‘life’ in Malay).

Project Hayat is a community-led effort, guided by a multi-stakeholder Work Group comprising policymakers, suicide experts, researchers, community workers and helping professionals, religious leaders, corporate leaders, representatives from the media, and people whose lives have been impacted by suicide. 

Commemorating World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September 2024, the Project Hayat Working Group has published a White Paper outlining key recommendations for a national strategy for suicide prevention from a first of its kind research on suicide prevention in Singapore. 

The White Paper

The Working Group approached this first study of its kind on suicide prevention in Singapore through a hybrid research model of (a) direct interviews; (b) focus group discussions; and (c) public consultation. 

13 direct interviews were conducted which included key representatives from suicide prevention organisations and government agencies in countries with national suicide prevention strategies such as Australia, England, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and United States as well as relevant participants in Singapore.

A total of 14 in-depth and inclusive focus group discussions were held with people in Singapore who have been directly and indirectly affected by suicide including parents, youth, educators, first responders, healthcare and emergency services personnel, religious leaders, media representatives and others who offered impassioned views on the impact of suicide and suicide loss. 

More than 500 respondents, representative of Singapore’s age, gender and ethnicity, contributed 4,584 perspectives and suggestions in the first phase of Project Hayat’s public consultation on OPPi, a citizen engagement platform.

Project Hayat’s second phase of public consultation hopes to gather more views and suggestions from Singaporeans and residents and is open on bit.ly/sgsuicideprevention till end of September 2024. The findings from this consultation will be updated on the White Paper which is a living document.

S.A.V.E L.I.V.E.S National Strategy for Suicide Prevention

The Project Hayat Working Group has adopted the acronym SAVE LIVES to flesh out a comprehensive set of goals and actions that provide direction for and expand on the current efforts in suicide prevention. 

SAVE LIVES embodies the suicide-free Singapore vision of Project Hayat and its clarion call for a whole-of-society effort to prevent suicide and alleviate its effects by focusing and committing to these goals and actions: 

• Strengthen Governance & Policy

• Amplify Awareness & Education

• Value Data & Research

• Enhance Means Restriction, Crisis Response & Healthcare

• Leverage on Technology & Innovation

• Involve Families & Communities

• Vitalise Workplace & Corporate Collaboration

• Ensure Continuous Improvement

• Support Schools & Educators

Strong governance leads in as the keystone in the strategy coupled with the need for a dedicated agency empowered to design and implement policies on suicide prevention. Built upon this is responsible public education to amplify awareness and consistent data management to build and track significant facts that can inform policy and action.

In addressing issues on the ground, the White Paper underscores the need for a more robust crisis response system to offer timely, professional and compassionate services and using technology to improve means and standards to serve those at risk. 

The full 160-page report of the Project Hayat White Paper is available to all at the link below

Our Sustained Commitment to Suicide Prevention

Project Hayat has remained committed to strengthening suicide prevention efforts in Singapore, through the direction and leadership of our Working Group and from people with lived experience of suicide. Since our launch a year ago, the White Paper has been presented to the Government - specifically the National Mental Health Office - and has contributed to informing national efforts to prevent suicide.

Since our launch, Project Hayat has also made progress in advancing conversations on suicide prevention in Singapore. Findings of the White Paper have been presented both locally and internationally, including at the NUS Social Service Research Seminar Series and the International Association for Suicide Prevention Congress 2025 in Vienna.

Building on findings of the White Paper, our research subgroup secured a $50,000 seed grant from the National University Health System under the Academic Health Programme (AHP) Fund 2024. This grant has funded interviews with five groups of Singaporeans vulnerable to suicide: older adults, LGBTQ+ people, low-income migrant workers, neurodivergent youth, and caregivers. A community report is expected by the first quarter of 2026. 

Scientific papers focusing on Project Hayat’s unique community-led governance structure, its shift away from a moral view of suicide, and the constructive role of media in suicide prevention are also underway, and expected to be published by end of 2025.

New Landmark Studies on Suicide Prevention

Building on our White Paper, Project Hayat is announcing the launch of two studies in Singapore. The first, on estimating the true number of suicides. The launch comes in the wake of provisional statistics released in July this year that sparked widespread concern. Provisional figures for 2023 suggested suicides were at a 20-year record low. But final figures revealed a 35 percent increase in deaths than originally reported - raising questions about the reliability of provisional statistics, which have become a source of confusion for both professionals and the public.

The next step is to fill the urgent data gaps through our continued academic partnership with the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. The study will employ the Network Scale-Up Method (NSUM) - a novel statistical approach never before applied to suicides in Singapore. NSUM has been used internationally to estimate the size of hidden or hard-to-reach populations, such as communities at risk of HIV, which are not captured by official census or national approaches. Applying this method to suicides is an important step forward, and we hope this study will give us a clearer picture of the lives we are losing and guide evidence-based prevention policies that match the scale of the problem.

The second study focuses on transforming male suicide risk in Singapore. Men accounted for nearly 70% of all suicides in 2023. Suicide is now the leading cause of death among youth aged 10–29, with elderly men also seeing alarming increases. Certain subpopulations, such as Indian men, are disproportionately affected - highlighting critical vulnerabilities shaped by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants.

Leveraging our academic partnership with NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, we have submitted a $1 million grant proposal to the Social Science & Humanities Research Thematic Grant (administered by the Social Science Research Council). If awarded, the grant will support a community-based participatory study of male suicide risk, designed to uncover the social conditions that drive despair and shape more effective prevention.