How can we do more to prevent suicide?

*Sensitive Content warning* - Please take care reading as post talks about personal experiences of suicide.

The simple answer is that we need to engage proactively in suicide discussions and also raising awareness of the challenges that might eventually bring about suicidal thoughts, crisis and attempts.

At the personal level I am invested in suicide prevention through a number of experiences.? In my early adulthood one of my friends took his own life, during my career one of the senior executives of our company ended his life in his office, through my work as a Samaritan I have supported numerous people experiencing suicidal crisis, and the most personal and closest to me is the multiple suicide attempts made by my own daughter over the past 4 years.

Sitting in the moment with someone who is at the point of wanting to choose death over life, it is incredibly sad to hear the pain that this person is experiencing.? The many conversations of suicide that I have had with those in crisis talk about the mental pain, the inability to find peace, death is the only option that they see to find this.

But what if we could change the direction of someone’s life for the better? What if we were able to prevent the suicidal thoughts from forming in the first place.? There is a way, but it takes open and honest conversations proactively to make sure we are connecting together as humans supporting each other.?? Now is the time to not shy away from the awkward conversations.

Personally I have never felt suicidal, but I can now see a clearer pathway to these thoughts, and how quickly others can make decisions to change their lives (and indirectly the lives of those closest to them).

Effects of suicide on family and friends

Learning that someone you know has died by suicide can absolutely be traumatic. In addition to all the feelings that anyone would feel about the death of a loved one, when the death is a suicide, there are additional feelings like:

• Extreme guilt for not preventing the suicide
• Failure because a person they loved felt unloved and completed suicide
• Anger or resentment at the person who chose to take his or her own life
• Confusion
• Distress over unresolved issues (many of which often exist in families where one person has a mental illness, which is common in people who die by suicide)

Prevention is the cure for suicide

Awareness of suicide in society is growing, we have awareness focus days like world suicide prevention day.? But this alone is not enough.? As caring and supportive humans it is imperative for us all to grow our knowledge of the topic, to be more comfortable in proactively approaching those we are concerned about, and to provide early intervention.

We create hope through action for the future. Suicide is preventable, it’s not inevitable.

Putting suicide into context – the data

·?????? Over 700,000 people take their own life each year globally – that’s one person every 40 seconds (World Health Organization)

·?????? 115 people die by suicide in the UK every week (around 6,000 per annum) – with 75% of those deaths being male (ONS)

·?????? 1 in 5 people have suicidal thoughts (NHS Digital)

·?????? 1 in 15 people attempt suicide (NHS Digital)

How can we help?

At Simpila Mental Health we help companies to design, develop and deliver programmes that help to improve the wellbeing of employees.? We use a simple Awareness, Education and Support model to understand where you are already investing, and then help to improve delivery and enhancements to each area through a focused plan and partnership approach.

If you would like to know more about our suicide prevention programmes please feel free to get in touch: [email protected]

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Crisis Support Resources for UK and Ireland

If you or someone you know is struggling and need extra help Samaritans exists today to help.? You can call for free on 116 123. - https://www.samaritans.org/

For Young Persons Suicide prevention you can contact Papyrus 0800 068 4141 - https://www.papyrus-uk.org/

Additional resources are available through searching on the Hub of Hope – https://hubofhope.co.uk