Despite changes in social attitudes in many other areas, there remains a deeply engrained stigma attached to suicide. Ian Cummins has been involved in working with a range of local agencies in the Stockport area to tackle some of these issues.
Stockport Suicide Prevention Leadership Committee is a collaboration of Stockport and Manchester organisations working together to prevent suicide in Stockport and Ian Cummins (Lecturer in Social Work) represents the University of Salford on the group. The Project has a vision that Stockport will become a place in which people never see suicide as the only option; nevertheless, in the rare event of a completed suicide, bereaved relatives and friends will have timely, easy access to effective local support and information.
The Project has developed a website: http://www.stockportsuicideprevention.org.uk that provides information to anyone who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts or is concerned about family members, friends, colleagues or other members of the community. The website provides clear information about local resources, but also the important message that there is support available. Ian Cummins and Elysabeth Williams (Public Mental Health Advisor at Stockport MBC) presented some initial findings about the use of the site at the National Suicide Prevention Alliance conference in London in February 2016. The group is now working to engage other local organisations in this work. Public Health England (PHE) has issued guidance for all areas on how to develop a local suicide prevention action plan; this work shows that Stockport has made significant progress towards achieving this.
If you have been affected in any way by the issues raised in this article then the Samaritans can help: http://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you/contact-us