Herald Society Award for our work with partners on suicide prevention
- Written by: — Health and Social Care Programme Manager
- Published: 2nd November 2018
Our work with partners on suicide prevention wins a Herald Society Award
I’m delighted to say that the ALLIANCE, led by the Health and Social Care Academy team, alongside our partners, Samaritans Scotland and NHS Health Scotland won the Partnership category at the Herald Society Awards last night for our work on suicide prevention.
It was a real team effort with all of our complementary skills and experience coming together to emphasise the voice of lived experience in the development of the Scottish Government Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
A particular thank you to everyone affected by suicide who came to the events and shared their views and experiences. Your words have directly impacted the Action Plan which is rooted in the voice of lived experience.
“One size does not fit all.”
I feel lucky to work for an organisation like the ALLIANCE, where challenging the status quo and being a courageous leader is encouraged and supported. This was a challenging piece of work in many ways; we were looking to ensure that humanity was emphasised and people were at the centre of decisions made. This involved ceding power to people and communities affected by suicide and working in a co-productive way, allowing change to be nurtured and embedded.
“People need to be treated as human beings during their support.”
Whilst this work was ongoing one of my family was having suicidal thoughts and I saw first hand the scale of change needed around suicide prevention, and particularly in how statutory mental health services support people. We experienced a disjointed system and staff who displayed a lack of kindness and compassion and no real willingness to help. If you didn’t fit into their system, processes and procedures, no help was available. As a carer this left me feeling, helpless, angry, frustrated and absolutely terrified. Having spent the whole of our work Christmas lunch crying last year over the injustice of the system and pleading with staff to see and respond to a person and a unique individual I knew that big changes were needed and I feel so privileged to have played a small part in bringing about that change.
I really believe that through working together, listening to the voice of lived experience and seeking to emphasise humanity of all, at every stage, that change is possible.
We still have a long way to go, but a strong start has been made to the Suicide Prevention Action Plan, with it being rooted in the voices of people affected by suicide. It is now essential that these voices continue to play a key role throughout implementation of the Action Plan.
“Suicidal people cannot wait for help.”
“There’s no point in knowing where to signpost people to if the services aren’t resourced and flexible.”
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