Thank you very much to Luciana Berger, the Shadow Minister for Mental Health, who visited our Suicide Crisis Centre yesterday, the 7th January 2016. In the interview that she gave to BBC Radio Gloucestershire about our Crisis Centre, she said:-

“I think it reflects incredibly well on this service in particular that for every person who has come through their door, no one has gone on to take their own life.That’s particularly significant and so it’s very clear that this service is needed. I just hope that as many people that need this service are able to access this or know about it. This is essentially a charity that’s providing this service for free and isn’t being funded by anyone.”

And a massive thank you to one of our male clients who was also interviewed for the radio programme, and who commented:-

“If this service hadn’t have existed, I know I wouldn’t still be here. It’s as simple as that.”

Thank you to Sybil Ruscoe, the presenter, who commented that our charity “has been described as one of the most pioneering and inspirational charities working in the mental health field”.

The interview with Luciana Berger and our client is at 01.43 in the radio programme and the link to it is below:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03cm1kh

Special thanks for everyone who has been working at our Suicide Crisis Centre and our Trauma Centre over the Christmas period. We have had a large number of emergency situations in recent days where we have also needed to involve 999 emergency teams (police and ambulance) and are very relieved that all clients are okay. As well as emergencies, our regular appointments and services have continued as usual all over Christmas, too. Here’s some of our fab team who have contributed so much this Christmas: Justin, Kallika and Janie.

We are massively grateful to the Gloucester Citizen today for their two-page feature on the background to the setting up of the charity and reasons for it, including the founder’s own suicidal crisis in 2012. In the print version they also feature the book and some well-chosen excerpts from it.

The link to the shorter online version of the article is below:-
http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Big-Interview-Joy-bring-hope-dire-need/story-27953531-detail/story.html

Thank you very much to the Gloucestershire Echo for this article, which highlights the huge increase in the number of clients accessing our services over the weekend, the number of high risk situations, and the fact that we are now responding to calls from all over the country. Our work is about face to face crisis support for people in Gloucestershire. The ever-increasing number of calls from people, from all parts of the country, shows that similar Suicide Crisis Centres are needed all over the UK.

The link to the article is below:-
http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Gloucestershire-suicide-crisis-charity-report/story-26897113-detail/story.html

We had a very interesting meeting in London last week with Louis Appleby, who is the Government’s adviser on suicide. He was very prepared to go into some difficult areas of discussion with us, and responded very openly and honestly. We also spoke about the Government’s zero suicide initiative, which we interpret as doing all that we can, for each person, to help them to survive. We felt that he genuinely understood what it is like to be at the point of suicide, and also understood what is helpful – and not helpful – at that point.

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.