Suicide, adolescence, and youth: What did those who sought the ‘Rede Pode Falar’ want to tell?

Between November 2023 and November 2024, adolescents and young people from all regions of Brazil placed 1,484 calls to ‘Pode Falar’—a supportive listening channel coordinated by UNICEF and partner institutions—to talk about suicidal ideation and/or suicide attempts. Grounded in qualitative social research and drawing on secondary sources that ensure confidentiality and anonymity, accessed with institutional authorization, the article is situated within sociology applied to public/collective health. Produced in the FIOCRUZ–UNICEF partnership, it analyzes the narratives contained in those calls, which were read in full, organized into a dedicated corpus, and examined using principles of content analysis ( frequency and thematic analysis). The results highlight: i) racism, misogyny, and ageism; ii) physical, psychological, and sexual violence; iii) home and school as the main settings of violence; iv) family members as perpetrators; and v) romantic relationships as rarely mentioned. On this basis, the article discusses the ‘weight of society’ in suicidal ideation and attempts, concluding that—beyond approaches centered on expanding mental health care—public policies must confront the violence and social dynamics that shape adolescents’ and young people’s everyday lives, combining qualified listening with intersectoral responses for protection and care.

KEYWORDS
Suicide; Adolescence; Violence; Racism; Sociology