Joy was invited to a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on suicide and self-harm in the House of Lords in December.
This month she has been invited to provide a further submission for the Health Select Committee inquiry into suicide prevention, following on from the oral evidence she gave in parliament last year about our Suicide Crisis Centre. This time she has been asked to comment on the Government’s updated strategy on suicide prevention.
Joy has also been invited by the Government’s adviser on suicide to meet with Health Select Committee Chair, Sarah Wollaston, in early February.

The BBC 6 o clock news featured the work of our charity on 29th November. A news crew filmed us as we went out to visit clients in their homes. As well as providing a Suicide Crisis Centre where clients come to see us, we also need to provide home visits, particularly when clients are at imminent risk of suicide.

The BBC news item focused on “Sarah”, and shows some of the many reasons why our service is needed. Our local crisis team is “closed” when we phone them on Sarah’s behalf. The A&E department at the general hospital says it is not an appropriate place for her. There are also no psychiatric beds available. The link to the online video on the BBC website is below:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38152562

Joy was invited to give oral evidence to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee on the 8th November. They are undertaking an inquiry into the action needed to help prevent suicide. Joy was asked to speak to the Select Committee about our Suicide Crisis Centre and how it works.

The video of the Select Committee session is below and Joy’s evidence starts at around 15.26

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-committee/news-parliament-20151/suicide-prevention-evidence2-16-17/

The BBC’s social affairs editor, Michael Buchanan, came to interview Joy for a BBC breakfast TV news piece about the number of patients dying by suicide under the NHS crisis teams nationally. Joy spoke about her experiences under the crisis team in 2012 and explained that it was one of the reasons why she set up our service,to provide something very different. She was also interviewed about our Suicide Crisis Centre. The link to the news piece on the BBC website is below:-

http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37563259

The Government’s adviser on suicide, Louis Appleby, approached us a few weeks ago to ask us to give a presentation about our work to the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, which he chairs. We did so on Tuesday. We explained about our ethos and approach, the way our services run, how we have achieved zero suicide at our Crisis Centre, and why a high proportion of our clients are men.

Huge thanks to Sky News for featuring our Suicide Crisis Centre in news bulletins throughout the day on World Suicide Prevention Day.

Our thanks in particular to Adele who interviewed Joy and one of our male clients in such a sensitive way, and to Mostyn who filmed the piece in a way that ensured that our client’s identity was not revealed.

“There is a gaping hole in crisis care provision……We need Suicide Crisis Centres across the country.”

Calls For More Crisis Centres As Suicide Rates Soar

http://news.sky.com/story/call-for-more-crisis-centres-as-suicide-rates-soar-10571855

We are very grateful to USA Today for this article about our Suicide Crisis Centre on World Suicide Prevention Day. This has helped so much in increasing awareness of our work. Thank you in particular to Jane who did the interview.

The link to the article is below:-

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/09/09/world-suicide-prevention-day/90116026/

Our thanks to The Independent and the “i” newspapers for their articles about our Suicide Crisis Centre last week which explain some of the ways in which we differ from other organisations and why those differences have helped ensure that our clients survive.
The link to The Independent article is below and we’ve included a scan of the “i” newspaper piece:-

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/after-a-bad-experience-with-mental-health-services-i-set-up-my-own-suicide-crisis-centre-and-i-a7159721.html

Thank you very much indeed to Martin Barrow and the Daily Express for this article about our work. It is really helpful in explaining how we work, and it reflects very well our ethos. Martin includes in his article a particular case where a client was at imminent risk and he explains how we helped in that situation. The article refers to our zero suicide achievement and the number of men who access our services.

The link to the article is here:-

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/675334/Joy-Hibbins-charity-lifeline-suicide