Suicide reduction begins at home because suicide is everybody’s business, says Samaritans. The charity is launching the Local Action Saves Lives campaign, in association with World Mental Health Day, to make suicide prevention a priority in neighbourhoods across England, Wales and Scotland.
More than 6,000 people died by suicide in the UK in 2015. Samaritans of Bournemouth and District is asking people to email their local council at Bournemouth, Poole, or Dorset to get suicide prevention made a local priority, encouraging agencies and organisations to work together to tackle suicide.
Samaritans is calling for all areas to have effective local suicide prevention plans. Many local areas still don’t have plans in place, with a patchwork of suicide prevention activity across the country that is letting far too many people down.
With 1 in 15 adults experiencing suicidal thoughts as shown by research launched last week, now is the time to raise this up the agenda and create a step change in action to reduce suicide. Everyone can play their part to make this a reality.
Dr Andrew Mayers, a psychologist at Bournemouth University and Patron for Samaritans of Bournemouth and District said: “Working together locally to prevent suicide really helps us have more influence. We get to know what’s going on because we are in regular meetings with other organisations, not only can we share ideas and best practice, we can see how we can get involved with projects locally which will really make a difference.”
Fiona Malcolm, Samaritans Deputy CEO, said: “Because suicide is everybody’s business, we want everyone to add their voices to the campaign to get all local authorities to implement strong suicide prevention plans in their area. It’s really simple – follow the link on our website and you can play your part in reducing suicide through Local Action Saves Lives.”
Follow this link to add your voice to the campaign to prevent suicide samaritans.org/action
For further information, please contact Samaritans’ press office on 020 8394 8300 or [email protected].
