10th September marks World Suicide Prevention Day, originally from St Helens, Andrea Newton raises awareness of resources to prevent suicide.
Somewhere in the world someone dies by suicide every 40 seconds. In the UK that is the equivalent of a passenger aircraft falling out of the sky every month.
Imagine if that were happening – every month – there would be uproar!
You will no doubt want to do your bit this week in the fight against suicide by highlighting this issue and I wondered if I could help you with that?
Thursday 10th September is World Suicide Prevention Day and yesterday the statistics confirmed that male deaths by suicide in the UK had increased again, in fact the highest in 20 years. The biggest increase overall in young people under the age of 24.
Despite all the “awareness” raising that organisations are doing – the numbers are not getting any better, it is time for ACTION as awareness
is not enough.
You see, I could have been one of those statistics. I had every intention of taking my own life and sometimes people do not understand how you can ever get to such a place where you think such things.
The slippery slope from stress to suicide is not an easy one to manage
and right now, in the UK, we have a perfect storm brewing.
So many factors that we KNOW increase the risk of suicide are in our
every day lives with an uncertain future, job losses, unemployment,
financial difficulties – we need to be prepared to REACH IN to help and
stop expecting those who are struggling to reach out.
I made a promise that if I survived that I would use my past to help
others futures. With the help of a strong social scaffold, something
that a lot of men lack, I made my way back from rock bottom and
qualified to become a suicide intervention tutor.
We need to encourage our community to take greater care of each other –
Covid brought out the best in us in some ways, but the impact of the pandemic is now set to deliver the worst times – if we are to believe what we are being told.
I’d like to share my story so that people know there is always a way.
* Awareness is not enough
* Men are 3x more likely than women to die
* Biggest increase in suicide in those aged under 24
* Factors that contribute are often financial, unemployment, lack of social network, relationship breakdown
* Covid19 has created a perfect storm
* People cannot reach out – we need to reach in
* Silence kills
Will you help me get this message out there and do your bit for World
Suicide Prevention Day on 10th September?
Here’s a little more of my story:
Contact Andrea via email at andrea@abdcct.co.uk or 07976 743882
