Grassroots Suicide Prevention charity launch a new campaign to tackle the concerning situation regarding suicide rates in Brighton and Hove.
BRIGHTON, often referred to as ‘London-By-The-Sea’, is famously liberal, the LGBT capital of the UK and the number one location for a weekend away. It has also been named as one of the best cities in the UK to live on numerous occasions and was listed as one of the best cities to visit in Europe last month.
What is not so well known however, is that Brighton and Hove’s suicide rate is nearly twice as high as the average for the South East and England as a whole.
Grassroots Suicide Prevention are a Brighton charity who work on a whole community approach to ensure that suicide is not just prevented at the time, but the means are in place to ensure that the future is safer too. They have a solution to open up the channels of communication around suicide and help to reduce these worrying statistics in Brighton and Hove, around the UK and the entire planet.
The plan includes training for businesses in Brighton and Hove so that their staff are given the skills to prevent suicide and most importantly are prepared to talk about it.
The charity have perfected training for businesses. It is a unique scheme which will help employees who are thinking about suicide, colleagues who are worried about someone and employers who want to provide the best working environment for their staff.
They have developed a pledge for Brighton and Hove businesses to sign to show their support for the campaign and are also compiling data about how suicide in the workplace is handled currently.
So far the survey has shown that over 30% of businesses in Brighton and Hove have been impacted by suicide and are aware that 20-40% of their employees are experiencing mental health problems in the workplace (e.g. depression, anxiety, psychosis).
Their goal is to have 100 businesses signed up to their pledge by World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10. This campaign is part of Grassroots’ ground-breaking initiative to develop Brighton & Hove as an internationally recognised ‘suicide safer city.’
Chris Brown, director of Grassroots Suicide Prevention, said: “Brighton & Hove has a very high suicide rate and we want to work with local businesses to change that. Businesses are uniquely placed to reach out to their staff and colleagues who might be thinking of suicide. Most people who die by suicide are of working age and many will be in employment.
“By signing up to this pledge companies can be more aware of the needs of colleagues who might be struggling with difficult feelings and be able to offer some support and information about where to go for help. 1 in 20 of us consider suicide in a 2 week period and business people are no different. Together we can help make our city safer from suicide.”
Tackling suicide is a huge problem everywhere, with well over 6,000 registered suicides in people older than 15 this year so far. In the last few years Brighton and Hove has seen local suicide rates go back up to nearly double the average for the rest of England.
The average number of registered suicides of people over 15 in Brighton and Hove was 105 deaths in 2013. This is 12.9% of deaths per 100,000 people and far higher than the UK average which is 8.8%. (The statistics for suicides take years to collate due to the nature of Coroner’s Courts so any data Grassroots Suicide Prevention have to work with is always two years behind.)
For a small city such as Brighton and Hove to be considerably higher than Manchester, Birmingham or London is a worrying situation and the first step to changing this is to open up the channels of discussion.
Martin Harris, Managing Director of Brighton & Hove Bus Company, said: “The work carried out by Grassroots Suicide Prevention is vital in helping challenge stigma attached to suicide and to help raise awareness of mental health issues that can affect anyone at anytime. Grassroots makes a valuable contribution in helping our community and we look to support this work in whichever ways we can.”
Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 with 78% of all suicides being committed by men. We spend on average 50 hours a week at work so, whether we like it or not, our occupation is a significant part of our lives. This is not to say that an employer is the cause of a potential suicide but that it is an ideal opportunity to reach out and be trained to deal with preventing suicide.
Stopping someone attempting suicide conjures up images of talking someone down from a ledge or a heroic last minute save like we see in Hollywood movies but in reality it’s mostly very different.
If you are worried about someone or feel that your business could benefit from this training then take the pledge.
To sign up for the free suicide alertness training or fill out the survey, click here:
To find out more about suicide prevention, click here:
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