Finding the words

When someone loses a loved one to suicide, often family, friends and colleagues want to offer support but feel uncertain about what to say. There is now a new guide to help make it easier to reach out to someone bereaved by suicide. Finding the Words offers practical advice about what to say, as well as what to avoid, and it is based on research by Dr Alexandra Pitman (Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at University College London).

The Judi Meadows Memorial Fund are delighted to have funded the writing, design and printing of the guide and we hope it will be welcomed as a valuable addition to the resources available for people affected by suicide.

Finding the words [PDF]

Third Time to Talk service

The third Time to Talk service for people bereaved by suicide took place on Saturday 4 March 2017 at St Martins-in-the-Field in London’s Trafalgar Square with over 450 attendees. Once again it combined powerful and poignant personal stories, thought-provoking poetry and beautiful moving music. It’s a privilege for us to be involved in helping to bring this unique community together for mutual benefit. This year the church kindly recorded an audio file of the service. It is is available here. We are grateful to everyone who attended and those individuals and organisations whose support helped make the event possible.

Specific elements of the service can be found at the following time codes:

01:03 – Music: Largo from Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G minor, George Frederick Handel
03:31 – Welcome: Revd Dr Sam Wells
04:54 – Opening address: David Mosse
10:49 – Music: O thou art the light, Gabriel Jackson
13:27 – Testimony: Anne Biggs-Davidson
20:04 – Music: The Lamb, John Tavener
23:25 – Poem: In memoriam Suzette Sabrina, Elly Niland
27:20 – Music: Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas, Henry Purcell
33:13 – Music: Agnus Dei from The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace, Karl Jenkins
38:13 – Testimony: Rohan Kallicharan
45:20 – Music: Ups and Downs, Hattie Whitehead
49:22 – Testimony: Amy Meadows
58:12 – Testimony: Sharon McDonell
1:05:35 – Music: Gabriel’s Oboe, Ennio Morricone arr. Craig Stella John
1:09:23 – Closing address: Revd Dr Sam Wells

Guidance on bereavement by suicide support services

As part of yesterday Prime Minister’s speech on mental health and suicide prevention, PHE and NSPA have launched new resources to encourage the development of services for people bereaved by suicide. It is a key ambition of JMMF to see that everyone affected by suicide should receive timely and appropriate support and it has been recognised as a key area of action in the national strategy since 2012 but to date support services are very patchy across England and too many people receive no help in the wake of a suicide. To help commissioners provide appropriate local services a guide to providing local services is now available from Public Health England. We hope that as part of local authority and health services’ wider suicide prevention work that they will provide more and better postvention services.  In addition, NSPA, have launched Developing and delivering local suicide postvention support and Evaluating local suicide postvention support. These resources outline a suggested pathway of support for people affected by suicide and a step-by-step framework for delivery. All three resources were produced by Amy and her team at Meadows Communications with input from a wide range of valued practitioners.

• Guide to providing local services
• Developing and delivering local suicide postvention support
• Evaluating local suicide postvention support

New Year’s Honours recognises mental health champions

We are really delighted that the Queen’s New Year Honours has recognised the important work in the field of mental health of a number of brilliant and committed people who we have worked with over the years to raise the profile of, and improve services for, people with mental health problems. Heartfelt congratulations to Hamish Elvidge of the Matthew Elvidge Trust, Sue Baker of Time to Change, Alison Baum of Best Beginnings and Sarah Brennan of Young Minds.

Health Select Committee interim report on suicide prevention

The House of Commons Health Select Committee have published their interim report on suicide prevention. They have provided a strongly worded conclusion and clear recommendations that more needs to be done.

Suicide prevention guidance for local authorities

We are very pleased that Public Health England have today launched local suicide prevention planning guidance to support local authorities develop and deliver effective suicide prevention interventions. The guidance has been developed on behalf of PHE by Amy and her team at Meadows Communications over the last six months following extensive consultation with practitioners and a review of the evidence. A letter from the Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt is being sent out to every local authority encouraging them to use the guidance. We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the guidance and we hope that with this support that more local action across England in 2017 and beyond.

Suicide prevention guidance for local authorities – download PDF