The countries of the UK each have a national suicide prevention strategy, all of them echo the importance of organisations working together to help prevent suicide and the importance of providing effective support after a suicide.
The implementation of these strategies is delivered through local planning and co-ordination. The commitment to and effectiveness of these local strategies varies across the UK.
We encourage professionals to get involved in their local suicide prevention strategy – or to campaign for the creation of one if it does not already exist. Only by making suicide everyone’s business and working together can we reduce the number of tragic deaths and the devastation left behind in the families and communities.
To find out more about what is happening in your local area, look at the resources below:
England
National Strategy third annual report and the First Annual Report (Feb 2014)
Prompts for local leaders on suicide prevention
APPG report on local prevention strategies
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Choose Life is Scotland’s national strategy and action plan to prevent suicide in Scotland. The Choose Life framework ensures action is taken nationally and locally to build skills through training, improve knowledge and awareness of good suicide prevention practice, and to encourage improved co-ordination between services.
Wales
Since losing our son Jonathan to suicide in May 2011, we have done quite a lot of fundraising. We have held boot sales, stalls at fetes, skydives and many, many raffles.
In 2005 we tragically lost Fee – beloved wife and mother, when she took her own life. The shock and loss was enormous and it wasn’t until 2009 when we discovered Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide. This charity has helped all three of us, in different ways, in coming to terms with such a painful loss. It is a loss that you never get over, but their involvement in our lives has helped us to move on but not forget.