World Suicide Prevention Day – what is it and why is it important?
It’s estimated that annually, 703,000 people worldwide take their lives from suicide.
In the UK suicide is the single most common cause of death for men under 50. Men are three times more likely to die by suicide than any other means.
Suicide is not inevitable and can be prevented with the correct support. World Suicide Prevention Day is a day that the whole world can stop and think about raising awareness of this issue and the struggles men face that lead them to take their own life. For more information on this, visit the what’s worrying you section here on the Calm your Mind website.
This year’s theme is ‘Creating Hope Through Action’. By doing this, communities can come together to signal to men experiencing suicidal thoughts that there is hope and that we care and want to support them. It also suggests that our actions, no matter how big or small, may provide hope to those who are struggling.
Calm Your Mind Halton
In Halton, earlier this year the Health Improvement Team at Halton Borough Council and Mind Halton joined forces with local men to launch Calm Your Mind, a new campaign that aims to increase awareness among men of the possible triggers and signs of poor mental health and help them find the right support.
Society’s expectations and stereotypes can sometimes prevent men from seeking the help they need.
According to the Mental Health Foundation, men are less likely to seek help for mental health issues than women. This is often due to social stigma surrounding mental illness and a belief that seeking help is a sign of weakness. Calm your Mind aims to change this by providing education and resources to men in need.
The campaign and website was developed following focus groups and in-depth interviews with men across Halton who shared their experiences and feelings around mental health.
One local champion supporting the campaign is 54-year-old Tom from Runcorn. Talking about his own experience of depression, he said: “I had been ill since I was a teenager, but it was only when I started work I sought help and was diagnosed with depression. It was liberating to finally have an answer as to why I had never felt quite right.
“I found the more I opened up and talked about it, the less I worried about what others might think. The real turning point for me came from advice from one of my counsellors about working towards a goal. You can lose a sense of purpose and identity when you’re suffering from mental health problems, but finding something to work towards really helped me.
“For me, I wanted to focus on helping others and ‘making my little patch of the world a little better than I found it. I now work with people experiencing mental health difficulties and help them access community facilities and support.”
Cllr Marie Wright, the Council’s Executive Board Member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “Society’s expectations and stereotypes can sometimes prevent men from seeking the help they need. Our ‘Calm Your Mind’ campaign aims to shatter those barriers. We want every man in our community to know that they are not alone, and that support is available.”
Visit Calm Your Mind : Calm your mind | Get back to a better place