For suicide prevention to work, that help must also be accessible.

Older adults experiencing vision loss or deafblindness may encounter challenges that affect mental health and well-being, from changes in independence and daily routines to social isolation and barriers to accessing health care. These experiences do not mean that depression or suicidal thoughts are an inevitable part of vision loss, deafblindness, or aging. They do mean that we need to pay attention to how sensory loss can affect mental health, and make sure that suicide prevention efforts include people with disabilities.

What do we know about vision loss and suicide risk?

Research increasingly points to an important relationship between vision loss and suicide risk.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis examined 31 population-based studies representing more than 5.6 million people. Researchers found that people with visual impairments had higher odds of suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior, and death by suicide compared with people without visual impairments.¹ Across the studies, visual impairment was associated with approximately twice the odds of suicidal ideation and nearly 2.5 times the odds of suicidal behavior.

More recent research has focused specifically on older adults experiencing severe vision loss. A 2026 study examined adults age 60 and older who were newly diagnosed with blindness and compared them with matched adults without blindness. Those newly diagnosed with blindness had increased risks of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts. The risks were greatest during the first year following diagnosis and declined over time but remained elevated at three- and five-year follow-up.² This suggests that the period following significant vision loss may be an especially important time to offer mental health screening, vision rehabilitation services, and other supports.

Research involving older adults with both vision and hearing loss raises similar concerns. In a study of adults age 50 and older with dual sensory loss, 17% reported thoughts of self-harm and/or suicide within the previous two weeks.³ Lower levels of emotional support, lack of participation in social activities, depressive symptoms, and poorer self-rated health were associated with these thoughts.

These findings tell us something important: mental health needs to be part of the conversation about adjusting to sensory loss.

Vision loss does not mean a poor quality of life

When discussing suicide and disability, we need to be careful about the story we tell.

Blindness, low vision, and deafblindness do not inherently make someone's life less meaningful or worth living. People with sensory disabilities work, volunteer, travel, build relationships, pursue hobbies, participate in their communities, and live fulfilling lives.

The challenge is often not simply the disability itself, but the barriers a person encounters.

For an older adult experiencing new vision loss, familiar activities may suddenly become more difficult. Someone who stops driving may have trouble getting to appointments, visiting friends, or participating in community activities. Reading mail, managing medications, cooking, using technology, or traveling independently may initially become more challenging.

A person experiencing both hearing and vision loss may encounter additional barriers to communication and information. Conversations can become harder to follow, and familiar ways of communicating with friends, family members, or health care providers may no longer work well.

But many of these barriers can be addressed.

Vision rehabilitation can teach new ways to complete everyday activities. Orientation and mobility training can support safe, independent travel. Assistive technology can provide access to information and communication. People who are deafblind can also benefit from individualized communication strategies, technology, and specialized services that support access and participation.

Suicide prevention, then, isn't only about responding after someone reaches a crisis. It is also about helping people maintain connection, independence, purpose, and participation in their lives.

Don't dismiss changes as “just part of getting older”

Signs of emotional distress may be especially easy to overlook in an older adult experiencing sensory loss.

A person may stop participating in activities they once enjoyed. They may withdraw from friends and family, neglect their health needs, express hopelessness, or say that they feel like a burden.

It can be tempting to explain these changes away: “Of course they don't go out anymore—they can't see well.” Or simply, “They're getting older.”

Those assumptions can allow serious emotional distress to go unnoticed.

Depression is not an inevitable part of aging. It is also not an inevitable consequence of blindness, low vision, hearing loss, or deafblindness.

Changes in behavior deserve curiosity rather than assumptions. Ask what has changed. Ask what the person misses. Ask what is making participation difficult. And don't be afraid to ask about mental health.

Ask about suicide directly, and make the conversation accessible

If you are concerned that someone may be thinking about suicide, it is appropriate to ask directly: “Are you thinking about suicide?”

Talking openly about suicide does not put the idea into someone's head. Instead, asking directly can create an opportunity for someone to tell you what they are experiencing and connect with support.

For a person with vision loss or deafblindness, make sure the conversation itself is accessible. Ask how the person prefers to communicate. Reduce unnecessary background noise. Make sure the person can hear you or access needed communication supports. Speak directly to the person rather than only to a family member, caregiver, or interpreter.

Most importantly, listen.

Someone who is grieving changes in vision or hearing does not necessarily need to be told to “look on the bright side.” Acknowledging grief, fear, anger, or frustration does not mean agreeing that life is hopeless. It means making room for someone to talk honestly about what they are experiencing.

Make mental health care accessible

Telling someone to seek help only works if that help is accessible.

Mental health providers, health care systems, and aging-service organizations should consider whether the ways people find and receive their services are accessible to people with sensory disabilities.

Can someone using a screen reader complete the online forms? Can information be provided in an accessible electronic format, large print, or braille when needed? Does a telehealth option work with assistive technology? Are captioning, qualified interpreters, or other communication accommodations available? Does the provider ask the person what they need to communicate effectively?

Accessibility should be part of mental health and suicide prevention services from the beginning; not something addressed only after a person encounters a barrier.

Connection is a form of prevention

Research on older adults with dual sensory loss offers another important lesson: emotional support and social participation matter.³

For older adults with vision loss or deafblindness, maintaining those connections may require intentional effort. Family members and friends can continue inviting someone to activities rather than assuming they can no longer participate. Aging organizations can consider accessibility when planning programs and events. Health care professionals can connect people experiencing new sensory loss with rehabilitation services rather than focusing exclusively on what medicine cannot restore.

And sometimes connection looks very ordinary.

Call. Visit. Send an accessible message. Invite someone to coffee. Help identify transportation options rather than assuming they cannot attend. Check in again after the initial crisis has passed.

The goal is not to do everything for someone with sensory loss. It is to make sure unnecessary barriers do not separate that person from the people, activities, and communities that give life meaning.

Suicide prevention must be accessible

Suicide prevention for older adults with vision loss and deafblindness begins with the same message as suicide prevention for anyone else: suicidal thoughts deserve to be taken seriously, and support is available.

But telling someone to seek help is not enough if they cannot access that help.

During Suicide Prevention Month, we can ask whether our mental health services, crisis resources, health care systems, senior centers, and communities are accessible to the people who need them. We can recognize vision and hearing loss without assuming disability means a poor quality of life. We can take emotional distress seriously without treating it as an inevitable part of aging.

And we can help older adults remain connected to the people, resources, skills, activities, and communities that matter to them.

Because suicide prevention is not simply about keeping someone alive. It is also about making sure people have the access, support, connection, and opportunity to build a life they want to keep living.

Where can you find help?

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free, confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People do not need to be suicidal to contact 988.

• Call or text 988 to connect with a crisis counselor.
• Online chat is available through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline website.
• People who are deaf or hard of hearing can access 988 through videophone. TTY users can use their preferred relay service or dial 711 and then 988.

If someone is in immediate danger or experiencing a life-threatening medical emergency, call 911.

Sources

1. Kim, et al. Visual impairment and suicide risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Network Open. April 2024. Found on the internet at https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.7026

2. Zhang, C., et al. Risk of Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidal Behavior in Older Adults with Severe Vision Loss. Journal of VitreoRetinal Diseases.  April 2026. Found on the internet at https://doi.org/10.1177/24741264261432179

3. Hovaldt, H. B., et al. A cross-sectional study of prevalence and correlates of self-harm and suicidal ideation in older adults with dual sensory loss. Disability and Health Journal January 2022. Found on the internet at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2021.101204