The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) has instituted an award in the name of Lakshmi Vijayakumar, psychiatrist and Founder of the SNEHA Suicide Prevention Centre.

The IASP Lakshmi Vijayakumar Rising Star Award for Impact and Innovation will recognise notable and ongoing impact, innovation, and contribution to the field (broad and cross sectoral) of suicide prevention at early to mid-career level.

Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar is the first IASP Board Member elected from a low and middle income country. She founded SNEHA, an NGO, suicide prevention crisis centre in Chennai in 1986 as a part of the global consortium of Befrienders International Samaritans worldwide. SNEHA volunteers have provided emotional support for distressed and suicidal people for the past 39 years and more recently opened a postvention support group.

The award is open to currently active early/mid-career researchers and practitioners (up to 10 years’ experience in the field of suicide prevention). They should have made a notable and ongoing impact, innovation and /or contribution to the field of suicide prevention research, programmes or projects and are acknowledged as an emerging leader in the field, as confirmed by opinion leaders (in academic, practitioner, voluntary and/or community sectors) nationally or internationally.