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We welcome yesterday’s publication of the Suicide Prevention Toolkit, developed collaboratively by Business in the Community, Public Health England and The Samaritans, and believe that this will be a valuable resource for employers to both refer to and build core components of into their mental health and wellbeing strategies.
Suicide is preventable, not inevitable. Statistics show us that the large majority of people to die by suicide are not under the care of a health team or service. We therefore need to upskill our family and friends network to be able to spot the signs of someone who might be suicidal and give them the confidence to be able to have the conversation with someone that they are concerned might be suicidal or who is in crisis. Mental Health First Aid provides that level of training and should be a key part of any suicide prevention strategy.
Poppy Jaman, CEO, Mental Health First Aid England, commented, “Our advice when training people on the subject of suicide is that it’s important to take notice of small changes in someone’s behaviour because those signs could actually be very significant. We also teach people that if they are concerned about someone, not to be afraid to ask the question ‘are you having suicidal thoughts or feelings?’, because if they are then they can be supported to access the right professional help and quickly. The biggest myth we need to bust is that talking about suicide increases the risk of someone taking their own life, when in reality talking is the most powerful first step towards safety, yet the hardest thing to do when we are distressed. This suicide prevention toolkit will be a very valuable tool for employers who are committed to improving mental health literacy within the workplace and hopefully reduce the risk of an employee feeling that there is no alternative to end the emotional pain.”
Data published today by The Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the risk of suicide among male labourers, particularly those working in construction roles, is three times higher than the male national average. The data show a risk for males working in skilled trades – the highest suicide risk was among building finishing trades, particularly plasterers and painters and decorators, who also have more than double the risk of suicide than the male national average. The stories of those in this demographic largely go untold. We are however, working very hard with the construction sector to ensure that a meaningful programme of mental health education is rolled out across this industry so that men, in particular, feel able to talk about their own mental health and that those who surround them feel skilled to guide them to appropriate support. Suicide is the leading cause of death in men under the age of 50, and the rate of female suicide is at its highest in more than a decade. According to today’s data, there were 18,998 suicides in men and women aged between 20 and 64 between 2011 and 2015, a rate of around 12 deaths for every 100,000 people per year.
We believe that Mental Health First Aiders can benefit workplaces of all kinds. Through campaigns in Westminster, and by working closely with our network of Mental Health First Aid instructors, we are striving to ensure that workplaces up and down the country are staffed with Mental Health First Aiders. By providing good quality information and training, we believe we can help to end mental health stigma and ultimately foster an open and communicative workplace culture where people feel empowered to have conversations around their mental wellbeing.