Let's Talk...Suicide Prevention and Awareness event - 22nd September
Today’s session was hosted by Sonia from Healthwatch Rotherham, who introduced Ruth Fletcher-Brown, a Public Health specialist from Rotherham Borough Council, and the ‘Be the one’ suicide prevention campaign. Sonia went through the ground rules of the session, highlighting to people that sensitive and potentially upsetting topics will be being discussed and there will be an opportunity at the end to talk to Ruth and ask any questions they have. We had an attendance of 23 people plus Healthwatch staff and our guest speaker Ruth, another great turnout.
In 2019, the campaign focused on male suicide, with this incredibly successful campaign reaching over 1 million people. Due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the female suicide awareness campaign had been delayed until September 2021, although work and support has still been continuing throughout the pandemic.
It is said that women can usually talk about anything, yet still too many don’t know how to talk about suicide. The ‘Be the one’ campaign is encouraging and enabling women to be more confident in talking about difficult subjects such as suicide. Following on from this, the group were shown a video that shows women in various scenarios (at the hairdresser, nail salon etc) having typical conversations about holidays and weekend plans, as well as the serious and important topic of suicide. It was highlighted that conversations like these should be normalised and should become less of a taboo topic.
You can watch the video here:
The ‘Be the one’ campaign has a clear message of ‘Talk, Listen and Care’:
- Talk: Don’t be afraid to ask someone if they’re okay
- Listen: Help someone to feel less alone
- Care: Support is available for anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts
Ruth then went onto highlight a number of resources the campaign has to offer. These include:
- Care cards: These card explain the steps to take when someone is at risk of suicide
- Posters that highlight the ‘Be the one’ campaign, the ‘talk, listen, care’ message and suicide prevention training
- Be the one campaign film
- Social media resources
All of these and more can be found on the ‘Be at one’ website here:
Support Services:
The ‘Be the one’ website contains the contact details of a number of local and national charities and support services that you can access as and when you, or someone you know, need them.
https://www.be-the-one.co.uk/#services
Amparo:
This service is commissioned across South Yorkshire and is for anyone recently or historically affected by suicide. Ring 0330 088 9255. Leave a message and a member of the team will call you.
https://amparo.org.uk/refer/ to refer directly and securely.
The Samaritans:
The Samaritans are available 24/7 on Freephone 116 123, or alternatively you can e-mail them on jo@samaritans.org
Papyrus:
CALM:
Stay Alive app:
- Quick access to UK national crisis support helplines.
- Quick access to local crisis services across of the UK.
- A safety plan that can be filled out by a person considering suicide.
- A LifeBox to which the user can upload photos from their phone reminding them of their reasons to stay alive.
- Safety contacts page and strategies for staying safe from suicide.
- How to help a person thinking about suicide.
- Wellness Plan for your recovery, a place for your positive thoughts, inspirations and ideas.
- Suicide myth-busting.
- Online support services and other helpful apps.
The app can be downloaded off of the Apple or Google Play store, for iPhone and Android users.
Zero suicide Alliance Training:
Take the online Zero Suicide Prevention Training with Zero Suicide Alliance. It takes just 20 minutes and will teach you how to recognise the warning signs and safeguard someone that could be contemplating suicide.
https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/training?utm_source=Rotherham&utm_medium=be%20the%20one – the training can be found here.
This was a really informative session from Ruth and we were able to take away lots of information regarding the ‘Be the one’ campaign and what support services and training is out there.
Some of the feedback we had from the session:
“Thank you, lots of useful information”
“That was really helpful”
“Thank you, very useful and I will be using the resources”
“Thank you Ruth, that was very useful. Lots of good information”
Thank you one again to Ruth Fletcher-Brown for conducting the session, and thank you to everyone who attended, we hope you found it informative and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.
Don’t forget our next ‘Let’s Talk’ session will be looking at Dementia Awareness, where we will be looking at Dementia, how you can support people who have dementia as well as their loved ones, and what services are available.
