Thursday 10-09-2020 - 13:43

 

In light of World Suicide Prevention Day, HISA VPFE, Ash Morgan, highlights the need for significant change in the governments approach to the provision of metal health funding.

 

 

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day.

 

You may know this already, and if you do you will probably have already seen a few articles or tweets surrounding this topic today. Let me guess how they went. Possibly something along the lines of: ‘reach out to your friends and family’, ‘check your loved ones are doing okay’, ‘remember to check in on people you know are having a hard time’.

 

While these are all valid points, and if you feel able to you might want to do one of these things, this is not how we should aim to make significant impact on the ever-growing suicide rates. What people need is not a friend or relative checking in, or popping around for tea and a chat. What we really need is a significant change in the funding levels and actions taken by the current government and people in charge.

 

You cannot change suicide rates on a case by case basis by going around to all of your struggling friends individually and helping them through a rough spot. What we need at this point is a major change in attitude from the people funding our NHS mental health services so these services can be more easily and readily available. There needs to be less gatekeeping when someone does eventually come forward to seek professional help. Waiting lists need to be measured in days rather than months.

 

Because the bottom line is that people at risk of suicide need professional help. The duty and onus of care should not be foisted upon that individual’s untrained social network, when there are people, whose literal job it is to look after our members of society that are struggling and get them the help they need.

 

This is not meant as an attack on the staff currently in the support positions. Every single one of them is doing a wonderful job despite the resources currently available to them. It is simply that the resources currently available to them are abysmal. Mental health support workers in the UK are underfunded, overstretched and overworked. There needs to be more counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals available on an easily accessible basis, in both emergency and routine capacities.

 

Systemic and significant change cannot be made by rubbing two pennies together and hoping for the best.

 

There needs to be a cultural shift made by our government placing preventative care at the forefront of our mental health NHS services, focussing on getting people care before they reach breaking point and not after a failed suicide attempt. We can no longer put the weight and sole responsibility of suicide and mental health support on the family and friends of the person suffering.

 

It is with all this in mind that I call on you. If you take one action today, I ask that it be that you reach out to your local politician and ask them what they are doing to demand an increase in mental health spending from the government. This is the only way we will see large-scale change in the ever-increasing numbers of suicides we see on a day-to-day basis.