We provide suicide prevention awareness training for the British Transport Police and the NHS

We have provided another suicide prevention awareness training session for the British Transport Police for their police officers in England and Wales. Next month we will be providing suicide prevention awareness training sessions for staff in an NHS Trust in London which provides psychiatric services.

The training is based on the methods, approach and ethos that we use at our Suicide Crisis Centre. We have also been providing this training for charities and specialist health services.

Our charity wins an award at the U.K. Mental Health and Wellbeing Awards 2021

Suicide Crisis won “Most Innovative Mental Health Intervention” at the UK Mental Health and Wellbeing Awards 2021.

The award was for our innovative suicide crisis services.

The judging panel included directors from Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and from NHS Surrey and the Borders, as well as judges from the University of Southampton and the Chief Executives of charities.

Joy, our CEO, attended the award ceremony along with Hilary and Tim. She paid tribute to our “wonderful team, who are so dedicated.” She explained: “This means so much to us.”

Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook is a number 1 bestseller in its category

We’re very pleased that “The Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook: How To Support Someone Who Is Having Suicidal Feelings” is the number 1 bestseller in suicide and psychology on Amazon Kindle. We hope that the book continues to reach people who need it.

You can buy the book here on Amazon: Amazon: The Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook

It’s also available at most bookshops including Waterstones here:

The Suicide Prevention Pocketbook by Joy Hibbins | Waterstones

“The Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook”

Our founder and CEO has written a new book which is available from most booksellers (including Waterstones and WH Smith) from 2nd September. Links to buy the book are below.

The Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook: How To Support Someone Who Is Having Suicidal Feelings is full of strategies to help you support a family member, friend or work colleague in a suicidal crisis. Professionals working with people in crisis are finding the book equally helpful.

The book is available from most booksellers including Waterstones, WH Smith, Amazon and Blackwell’s. 

Available from WH Smith: WH Smith: Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook

and from Amazon: Amazon: Suicide Prevention Pocket Guidebook

Our face to face services continue during lockdown

It is very important that we go out to see clients at home, when they are at immediate risk of suicide: a mental health emergency. We have always provided a combination of Suicide Crisis Centres (a safe place for clients to visit) and home visits.

We are still providing this during lockdown. This is an image (filmed before the Covid-19 crisis) of a BBC 6 O’ Clock news piece which focused on our Suicide Crisis Centre and how we respond to emergency situations.

 

Our crisis services remain available during COVID-19 lockdown

We are continuing to provide suicide crisis services during the COVID-19 lockdown. We are documenting the impact on our clients of the national crisis.

In March we were approached by The Express newspaper, asking our opinion about who is most at risk of mental health crisis and suicide during the COVID-19 crisis. Our CEO’s opinions were captured in a article on the 26th March:

The Express: “Coronavirus Mental Health Warning: Expert reveals key demographic most at risk”:  https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1260764/coronavirus-suicide-latest-elderly-people-isolation-news-suicide-crisis-spt

In April, The Telegraph published an article about the comments of our CEO regarding the use of war-like language to describe the response to COVID-19. She explained how it can deter people in mental health crisis from seeking help:

The Telegraph: “Warlike talk of Covid-19 battle could shame people into avoiding NHS, charity warns”                    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/27/warlike-talk-covid-19-battle-could-shame-people-avoiding-nhs/

In June, an article about our Suicide Crisis Centre was featured in The Metro newspaper: “What it’s like to work in a suicide crisis centre during the pandemic”. It explains why we have continued to offer face to face support to people at high risk of suicide.

The Metro: “What it’s like to work in a suicide crisis centre during the pandemic”:

What it’s like to work in a suicide crisis centre during the pandemic

Our “Saving Lives” blog website: a new learning resource

The new “Saving Lives” blog website features articles written by Joy, the founder and CEO of Suicide Crisis. It includes new articles, as well as some of her articles featured in national newspapers including “Men and suicide: what they are telling us about the kind of care they need”, “Please don’t call us difficult to engage” and Ellie’s story: why we need to treat addiction and mental illness together” (on page 3 of the blog website).

“Please don’t call us difficult to engage” has been used as a learning resource in training events for mental health professionals in different parts of the UK. It has attracted the comment “Every clinician should read this”. This is the link to the website: https://www.savinglives.blog/

National and local awards for our team

Joy, our Founder and CEO, was named in the Independent newspaper’s “Happy List” 2019. The list is “an antidote to awards that celebrate wealth or celebrity”. The Happy List celebrates people in the UK who “give rather than take”. Everyone on the list is ranked equally, and Joy was listed in particular for kindness.

And locally, our Allan Fawlk was awarded Volunteer of the Year at the “Pride of the Cotswolds” 2019 awards, which was organised by local newspapers. Allan is a support worker, accompanying our team members on emergency home visits to our clients.

New Zealand: How our work is supporting suicide prevention work on the other side of the world

In June we were contacted by a senior project manager from the Ministry of Health in New Zealand. She is leading on their new national suicide prevention strategy. She explained that she had read Joy’s book about our work, had shared it among her colleagues at the Ministry, and wanted to learn more, to assist them as they develop their new strategy.

Further phone and email contact has taken place and Joy has been able to provide detailed information about our work. She has subsequently received an email from the Ministry which commends the work of Suicide Crisis, and describes it as inspiring. In the email, they asked Joy to reflect on the fact that the work of Suicide Crisis “is supporting other work across the world”.