We were invited to give a presentation to the reference group and steering committee of the South West Zero Suicide initiative in February. The South West is one of three regions where the Government’s Zero Suicide is being piloted.  We would like to thank them for the extremely warm welcome that they gave us. They described the presentation that we gave them, about our work, as “inspirational” and described what we are doing as “extraordinary”.

In 2012 there was scepticism that a recent survivor of suicidal crisis could set up a Suicide Crisis Centre.  That experience of suicidal crisis should be seen as a strength of the charity, and not a weakness. Our clients know that this charity works. Our client feedback has always been excellent, and that is what has mattered to us. But this reaction from the SW Zero Suicide initiative meant a lot, and we are very grateful.

Joy was invited to a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self Harm on Tuesday.  She spoke about our charity, the excellent feedback from clients, and the fact that no client has died by suicide whilst under our care. As the local media reported on 20th January, there was a suicide last year of a client who went into psychiatric hospital, and died under the care of mental health services, which was profoundly distressing for us.

She also spoke about the fact that we are contacted by people, who are in crisis, from all over the country – and the fact that we cannot reach them, and they cannot get to us. There is a clear need for similar services in other parts of the country.

We have been asked to give a presentation of our work to the steering committee of the South West Zero Suicide initiative next month. We will be able to explain how we work and what we do that’s different. There has never been a suicide of a client under our care in the 19 months that we have been offering services. One of our clients was admitted to psychiatric hospital and died under the care of mental health services, which is why we are particularly interested in how the NHS responds to the Zero Suicide initiative. Thanks to local media for including this in their coverage of the Government’s announcement of their commitment to the Zero Suicide initiative nationally. The Zero Suicide initiative is being piloted in three areas, one of which is the South West.

Thank you very much to the Gloucestershire Echo and the Gloucester Citizen (our local newspapers) for their coverage on 23rd December which let everyone in Gloucestershire know that our Suicide Crisis Centre would be open on Christmas Day. We have been here all over Christmas.

We were pleased to be invited to meet Norman Lamb at Whitehall last week to talk about the work of Suicide Crisis.  Norman is Minister of State at the Department of Health, and his portfolio includes mental health services. We were able to explain in detail our approach, our ethos and how we support people at our Suicide Crisis Centre.

Thank you very much to Anna King and her team at BBC Radio Gloucestershire for interviewing us this morning about the number of clients that we have been seeing in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The link to the programme is below and we are right at the beginning of the programme at 13 minutes past nine (13.24) :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02dsf4l

Last Christmas we had a marked increase in the number of clients that we were seeing, but we have seen even more clients this December. We explain some of the reasons why this is happening. The link to the online article is below:-
http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Suicide-charity-struggling-cope-600-cent-increase/story-25713287-detail/story.html

The two links below are to the articles that appeared in Saturday’s local newspapers about the number of clients with Borderline Personality Disorder who are accessing our services, because they are in crisis. We believe that this is because this county doesn’t have an NHS specialist Personality Disorders service.  We would urge the CCG to commission this. NICE recommends that counties should create specialist personality disorders services. NICE also states, in its guidelines, that people with BPD “are at particular risk of suicide”.

Our thanks to Lily and Julia, two of our clients who have BPD, who were interviewed for the first article.

Lily’s Story and Julia’s Story (Borderline Personality Disorder)

Suicide Crisis: Specialist Service For Personality Disorders Urgently Needed

One of our clients, who has Borderline Personality Disorder, is planning to set up a support group for people with BPD.  She is keen to hear from other people with BPD who would like be part of the group. The group will be meeting at our centre, and we will be assisting her in setting it up and will be providing ongoing support .

Joy will be meeting Norman Lamb, Minister for Care and Support, in mid-December, to talk about the work of Suicide Crisis. Norman Lamb’s responsibilities, within his ministerial role, include mental health.