There has been a big and very positive response to my blog about Gemma. That is great and I am glad it has made people think about the issues and talk about things. September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day. When I came back from leave I found that my team at the CCG, fired up by my blog had decided to have an” inside out” day to highlight suicide prevention on Wednesday. This event is being organised by http://www.ifucareshare.co.uk. The idea is we all wear out clothes inside out and then wear a button that askes people to ask us why and then explain suicide prevention awareness to them… we will have a banner on our emails.
Did you know:
• 1 Million people across the globe die by suicide each year.
• Suicide is now the biggest killer of young males in this country aged 15-35 years
• The North East has the highest suicide rate in this country
• More people die by suicide each year than by murder and war combined.
WE need to talk about these things. Helping people express their feelings, sharing them with others is the first step. We need to understand suicide is the tragic end point of serious mental illness, or a moment of complete despair and isolation where no other option feels possible.
When I was young my cousin committed suicide. She had bipolar disorder. She was 27. She didn’t even have a funeral. It was shameful then. We never talked about it as a family and her parents stoically went on with their lives. To their neighbours and friends they seemed fine, they were members of Rotary and the Conservative Club. Social doers. But I knew the terrible sense of loss and sadness they carried wordlessly, unable to share even with each other, for the rest of their lives. It robbed them of any real joy in life. There were moments when the pain was visible beneath the veneer and they talked in hush voices to their daughter’s friend, me, who had loved her too.
Are we better at it now? I don’t know. It is less shameful maybe. As a health system we examine the case, we assure ourselves there was nothing more anyone could have done. No one to blame. But do we ask ourselves the bigger questions? Do we invest in services which help prevent this- which give young people the tools and the confidence to make a different choice? Do we talk openly to our children about their feelings and their fears? Do we have responsive services for those in our care with significant mental health problems so they can tell us that it is getting too desperate. We know the answers to these questions don’t we?
How many organisations out there are doing anything to mark this World Day? If we are all baking away for the Macmillan coffee morning day and dousing ourselves in icy water for MND, where is the equal publicity for this event that seeks to highlight the terrible tragedy that robs us all of increasing numbers of young and old without warning? I am glad my blog touched people but we all need to do something differently to make things different.
So what will we do? Well we will have the Inside Out Day and we will talk about it to anyone and everyone we come into contact with. We will publicise it on our website. We will work hard with our providers of mental health services to improve our services to young people especially. We will commit to developing mental health services in our area giving an increasing proportion of our budget next year as we did this year, to begin to put right the years of underfunding that went before.
