This month sees the launch of a new website aimed at preventing suicide across Cheshire and Merseyside. The website has been designed for professionals to help them to support those who are struggling with suicidal thoughts and/or self-harm.
High levels of self-harm and suicide indicate that some people are really suffering. Research shows that when someone takes their own life it can impact up to 135 other people, from friends and family, to colleagues, neighbours, and many others in their community. Sadly, there has been an increase in suicides across Cheshire and Merseyside and across the North West.
The Cheshire and Merseyside Suicide Prevention Partnership has been devised with the explicit aspiration of trying to prevent suicide and help make Cheshire and Merseyside a place where people never look to suicide as an answer.
A key way of achieving this goal is by ensuring people have access to information and support at the right moments. This can be people who are in crisis, people who know someone in crisis, or those who encounter people who are struggling in their daily lives.
The new website – sppcm.co.uk – has been developed specifically to provide information for professionals working across the sub region and equip them with insights, training and access to other groups that work on reducing suicide.
Complementing the website is a toolkit, with ready-to-use communications materials for partners to share with their networks on social media channels and in their place of work.
It’s a myth that it’s wrong to ask people if they are feeling suicidal, it’s okay to ask. The Cheshire and Merseyside Suicide Prevention Partnership hopes to tackle this by making it easier and by providing resources to help dialogue to occur in a sensitive and timely way.
There are many, many different reasons why people choose to take their own lives. But the Cheshire and Merseyside Suicide Prevention Partnership is helping to share the knowledge and start the conversations that will help communities reach those who feel alone before they reach crisis point.
The Cheshire and Merseyside Suicide Prevention Partnership, led by the Champs Public Health Collaborative on behalf of the nine Directors of Public Health and the NHS Director of Population Health across the sub region, drives strategic suicide prevention action across all nine local authority places.
The Partnership consists of a wide range of members including Public Health representation, the Lived Experience Network, Mental Health trusts, local Councillors and other key partners.
Ruth du Plessis, Lead Director of Suicide Prevention for the Collaborative and Director of Public Health for St Helens chairs the Partnership Board.
She said:
“With this new website, we will be supporting professionals across Cheshire and Merseyside by helping to equip them with the tools and knowledge to have conversations with those who have self-harmed or thinking of taking their own life.
“Our aspiration is for Cheshire and Merseyside to be a sub region where all suicides are prevented, where people do not consider suicide as a solution to the difficulties they face and where people have hope for the future.
“By working together, we can make a difference, save lives and improve the health and wellbeing of many.”
For more information about the Champs Public Health Collaborative’s Suicide Prevention programme, visit https://champspublichealth.com/suicide-prevention/