A article in the Metro newspaper this weekend highlights the increased need for our suicide crisis service in December and January, and explains some of our clients’ experiences of accessing our services.
“It’s a place that’s full of hope, because we believe all our clients can survive. And it’s a place of caring and kindness and human warmth.”
This is the link to the article: ‘It’s the opposite of depressing’: Inside the Suicide Crisis Centre | Metro News
Our CEO attended the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self Harm Prevention. She spoke about open-access psychiatric crisis services, the training of psychiatric crisis teams, the waiting times for psychological therapy under secondary mental health services and issues relating to mental capacity and suicide.
Last month she attended the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees. Her focus was on how we can ensure that refugees receive the mental health support and services that they need. The meeting focused particularly on Afghan refugees, many of whom are still waiting to be housed in this country. Our CEO worked with refugees and asylum seekers in the past and she will continue to be involved in APPG meetings.
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.
We were invited by the British Transport Police to provide a suicide prevention webinar for their police officers across the UK on World Suicide Prevention Day.
We will be providing another suicide prevention webinar for them in January.
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/
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.
Joy, our CEO, was a guest on the BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine show on Wednesday 10th October, talking about trauma, suicide and the work of our Suicide Crisis Centre. Her interview is right at the beginning of the programme, starting at 08.57:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/m0000rtw
At our recent Oxford conference we talked about our work and how we have achieved zero suicide. There was a particular focus on men and suicide, and we are extremely grateful to our male clients who spoke at the event. It was hosted by an Oxford University college.
Although we didn’t ask for feedback, many people who attended emailed us afterwards and their comments included: ‘inspirational and moving seminar’ ‘simply amazing, thought-provoking, inspiring and moving in every way’ ‘bowled over by the heartfelt, courageous inspirational talks’ ‘important and insightful…. what a wonderful charity’ ‘sharing unique experiences with honesty, bravery and humour’, ‘the presentations…left a profound impact on me’
Huge thanks to St Edmund Hall (part of Oxford University) for making it possible. Thanks to BBC News South for covering the event.
Joy has written a piece for the Huffington Post about people who psychiatric services sometimes describe as “difficult to engage”. She explains that we need to understand why people aren’t engaging. Services have a responsibility to help people to connect with them and there are implications for a person’s suicide risk if they don’t. The link to the Huffington Post piece is below:-
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/../../joy-hibbins/please-dont-call-us-diffi_b_10988746.html
Joy was invited to a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Suicide and Self Harm Prevention in Parliament on Tuesday. She raised the issue of the importance of mental health teams being prepared to liaise with, and listen to, organisations in the voluntary sector such as Suicide Crisis. She pointed out the dangers of an unwillingness to listen to information that we attempt to share with them (with the client’s consent). She also commented on the importance of recognising that the staff in survivor-led, user-led charities are well-trained professionals, in a professional role, and mental health teams should not not underestimate the skills that they have, or the value of what they can contribute.