Inagi – a Visual SWOT for Community-Centred Youth Suicide Prevention

Youth suicidality represents a pressing global public health crisis, and in India, local socio-cultural and socio-economic factors deeply shape it. Pondicherry reports a suicide rate of 29.7 nearly three times higher than the national average (12.3) and the global average (9.2). Rural youth remain disproportionately affected, with many suicidal issues emerging within community contexts. Despite this, communities rarely participate actively in prevention strategies, and individuals at the bottom of the social hierarchy often lack a voice in such initiatives. Deep-rooted stigma further discourages people from sharing their lived experiences. Addressing this crisis requires a paradigm shift from external, expert-driven clinical models to community-driven, sustainable strategies that build internal resilience.

To explore this shift, the Trust for Youth and Child Leadership (TYCL) launched INaGi (Ilainjarkuladan Nagaramum Gramamum), a visual SWOT approach that prioritizes local knowledge systems. Grounded in the Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework, the visual SWOT approach integrates digital visual media with management techniques to help communities understand their capacities and challenges. It enables participants to identify and visually document protective factors (strengths), barriers (weaknesses), untapped opportunities for collective action (opportunities), and triggering elements (threats).

The INaGi process includes ten key steps: identifying high-risk communities; selecting key informants; preparing a community profile; developing a SWOT analysis on paper; capturing the SWOT as a visual documentary; screening the documentary within the community; facilitating post-screening reflection and validation; developing a community action plan addressing daily mental health challenges, existing support systems, and socio-cultural triggers; conducting public screenings with stakeholders; and implementing structured follow-ups to ensure actionable solutions.

TYCL conducted an initial pilot in the Bahour commune, which includes eight revenue villages. Researchers collected ten life-story interviews from family members, friends, and close associates of individuals who died by suicide, along with seven interviews from stakeholders such as mental health professionals and community leaders. They documented these narratives visually with ethical sensitivity, creating a foundation for understanding the socio-cultural and emotional contexts of youth suicidality. The team screened the documentary in six selected villages to support participatory validation and reflection. These screenings created a structured platform for dialogue, allowing community members to observe, relate to, and reflect on shared mental health experiences, community strengths, and socio-cultural triggers.

The study found that suicidal risk often stems from intense social pressures and expectations. Participants identified signs of suicidality that had previously gone unnoticed due to low mental health awareness and stigma. In many cases, the community itself contributed to mental health challenges. However, the visual SWOT approach improved participants’ understanding of both risks and opportunities for prevention. By capturing lived experiences visually and fostering collective reflection at the community level, this approach amplifies community voices and helps reduce stigma. It offers a transparent way to represent community realities and encourages stakeholders to listen and respond effectively. Given the evolving nature of society and the growth of media technology, the visual SWOT approach provides an updated, youth-led model for participatory action research in suicide prevention and beyond.