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10/9/2012
International Suicide Prevention Day When ones career involves immersion into everyday distress and reactions, both positive and negative, to that distress it’s paradoxically easy to become distanced from it.
Counsellors get used to hearing parts of peoples lives that are filled with anguish, melancholy, fury and sorrow and respond to suffering with care and interest. We discuss it, debate it, research it and attempt to make sense of it with clients and peers and thus the awful stigma of suffering rapidly diminishes. So in a way it’s enlightening that so many parts of the media are calling today International Suicide Day, as if we’re all going to join hands and jump off bridges together sometime this afternoon, perhaps raising some sponsorship for a worthy cause at the same time. If this is the level of engagement that the Fourth Estate has for this most serious subject then there remains a massive amount of work to be done. Suicide accounts for the death of one person worldwide every 40 seconds. In England it’s one person every 2 hours. One person every two hours. If you are feeling suicidal you are not alone. That sense of isolation, of being utterly unable to make contact with someone who will listen to you and help you, is central to many people’s decision to kill themselves. In fact there are networks of people who will do precisely that: listen to you and help you avoid suicide. The Samaritans is perhaps the best known and they’ve become more accessible. As well as speaking with someone on the phone you can write to or email them as well as dropping in to one of their branches. NHS mental health services, from GP's to residential inpatient wards are everywhere. While some are good, many mental health wards are holding areas staffed by disinterested people and they will remain like that until we approach mental health with as much concern as we do the care of small children. If you’re feeling suicidal and are not totally, utterly committed to killing yourself, if there’s the smallest doubt that you might not want to die then go to one of these centers. They will keep you alive, give you 3 meals a day, provide warmth, light and a bed and, taking all responsibility from you, give you time. You may meet a member of staff or another patient who will listen in a way that you find helpful. They can help connect you with other services that you didn’t know about. At the very least they can show you what route you may be heading down and offer a sobering view to the future. Any number of people have been so shocked by what they’ve experienced on psychiatric wards that they change their lives for the better to ensure they never return. There are a small number of places run by people who have a genuine interest in and compassion for other people in crisis offering heartfelt care rather than statutory support. The Maytree, based in London is an enlightened, excellent place that offers “a short stay in a safe residential setting where you can talk, reflect and rest - and restore hope. Maytree is a place where you will be heard, respected and accepted, without judgement and in confidence.” The Government has published a report today on reducing suicide which makes interesting reading. But unless we’re willing to ask for help, to offer help and to be able to point each other to meaningful help and support when we become suicidal, all the reports in the world are going to be meaningless. Reach out. You do not have to die today. |
CategoriesAll Abandonment Abuse Ancestors Anger Anxiety Ash Wednesday Attitude Banking Bereavement Birthday Breivik Bystander Effect Camila Batmanghelidjh Carnival Cbt Challenger Charlotte Bevan Childbirth Childhood Children Christmas Coaching Compassion Contemplation Control Counselling Culture Dalai Lama Death Death Cafe Democracy Depression Domestic Violence Dying Eap Earth Day Empathy Employment Eric Klinenberg Ethics Existential Failure Family Annihilation Founders Syndrome Francis Report Gay Cure Genocide George Lyward Goldman Sachs Good Death Greg Smith Grief Grieving Grooming Groupthink Happiness Hate Hungary Illness Interconnectedness Jason Mihalko Jubilee Kids Company Kitty Genovese Life Light Living Loneliness Love Mandatory Reporting Meaning Men Mental Health Mid Staffs Mindfulness Money Mothers New Year Nigella Lawson Optimism Organisational Collapse Oxford Abuse Panama Papers Panic Panic Attacks Parenthood Petruska Clarkson Pleasure Politics Positivity Post Natal Depression Power Priorities Priority Productivity Psychotherapy Ptsd Red Tent Reflection Rena Resilience Riots Rites Of Passage Ritual Robin Williams Sad Sales Savile Seasonal Affective Disorder Self Preservation Self-preservation Shock Sin Singletons Sport Spring Status St David St Georges Day Stress Suarez Suicide Support Talking Terry Pratchett Time Transition Trauma True Self Truth Understanding Unemployment Valentines Day Viktor Frankl Violence Whistleblowing Who Am I Winter Blues Women Work Archives
August 2017
CategoriesAll Abandonment Abuse Ancestors Anger Anxiety Ash Wednesday Attitude Banking Bereavement Birthday Breivik Bystander Effect Camila Batmanghelidjh Carnival Cbt Challenger Charlotte Bevan Childbirth Childhood Children Christmas Coaching Compassion Contemplation Control Counselling Culture Dalai Lama Death Death Cafe Democracy Depression Domestic Violence Dying Eap Earth Day Empathy Employment Eric Klinenberg Ethics Existential Failure Family Annihilation Founders Syndrome Francis Report Gay Cure Genocide George Lyward Goldman Sachs Good Death Greg Smith Grief Grieving Grooming Groupthink Happiness Hate Hungary Illness Interconnectedness Jason Mihalko Jubilee Kids Company Kitty Genovese Life Light Living Loneliness Love Mandatory Reporting Meaning Men Mental Health Mid Staffs Mindfulness Money Mothers New Year Nigella Lawson Optimism Organisational Collapse Oxford Abuse Panama Papers Panic Panic Attacks Parenthood Petruska Clarkson Pleasure Politics Positivity Post Natal Depression Power Priorities Priority Productivity Psychotherapy Ptsd Red Tent Reflection Rena Resilience Riots Rites Of Passage Ritual Robin Williams Sad Sales Savile Seasonal Affective Disorder Self Preservation Self-preservation Shock Sin Singletons Sport Spring Status St David St Georges Day Stress Suarez Suicide Support Talking Terry Pratchett Time Transition Trauma True Self Truth Understanding Unemployment Valentines Day Viktor Frankl Violence Whistleblowing Who Am I Winter Blues Women Work |
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