Partners in Prevention – Samaritans’ response to government’s Suicide Prevention Strategy
Samaritans, lead of the Suicide Prevention Consortium, part of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, have published a new report responding to the government’s Suicide Prevention strategy.
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in September 2023, makes clear that the actions the government has committed to in the strategy were shaped and strengthened by people with lived experience of suicide.
Together Samaritans and the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) sought views from 114 people with lived experience of suicide and self-harm or of using Samaritans’ service about how much they felt they contributed to the strategy.
They sense-checked what they heard in 2022 against what it says in the government’s strategy to gain insights on whether the final document adequately reflects what people said needed to change. Project participants gave them their views on NHS crisis services, priority at-risk groups that are outlined in the strategy, action to reduce stigma and increase societal understanding of suicide, and the intersection between suicide and alcohol.
They also found that the majority of people who responded to the survey were not aware of the suicide prevention strategy and felt that they hadn’t had an opportunity to contribute.
The project confirms that it is vital to invest in as many meaningful opportunities for involvement in suicide prevention work as possible. There is also a need to communicate the impact that lived experience involvement has had back to people involved, so they can see the value that they have added.
