Christmas reflections from Haylis

Our national delivery lead reflects on the ongoing work to prevent suicide in Scotland.

Like many people, at this time of year I like to take some time to reflect on the year gone by.

It is easy when working in suicide prevention, when we continue to see people dying by suicide, to feel despondent.

I found it difficult this year when despite all the work we are doing, the NRS figures for deaths by suicide were released and we saw another rise.

It makes me ask, what more can we do? How can we stop people from getting to the point they feel suicide is their only option? How can we make sure that people feeling suicidal know that help is available? And how do make sure that when people seek that support, it is there and delivered in a way which is helpful?

I think it is good to continually ask ourselves these types of questions; it is what has helped to drive and shape the work in Scotland over the last 20 years.

But while we ask these questions, I also believe it is important to highlight where we are making changes that are, or will, make a difference.

By highlighting and sharing these, we go a long way to ensuring that when people need support they know it is there and how to reach it.

So here, some of the key things for me, from this past year.

Coming together

Our ambition in establishing Suicide Prevention Scotland was to develop a community where everyone supporting suicide prevention felt they belonged. I know we still have some work to do to fully realise this ambition, but I think the events we have held this year have gone some way to creating the right opportunities for this to happen.

We have held a three in person events — Gathering Hope for third and charitable sector organisations; Creating Hope Together conference which brought people across different sectors together to learn, share and connect; and Side by Side After Suicide for people bereaved by suicide.

Each event proved to be very popular and reached capacity quite quickly.

These events all had a different purpose, it was the first time for a number of years we had held a full national conference and there was such a positive atmosphere in the room with people connecting with others who could support their work.

The Gathering Hope event was the first of its kind, the agenda was co-developed by some of the smaller organisations working in suicide prevention in Scotland and it was great to hear about all the brilliant work happening across the country.

Our Side by Side After Suicide event was also a first. This was a national event to bring together people who have been bereaved by suicide alongside many of the organisations who can provide support. It was one of the most powerful and emotional days I’ve experienced in my 20 years of working in suicide prevention.

The feedback from each event was positive, helping us understand what people found useful and what could be done differently for future events.

We are already planning next year’s events and very much look forward to welcoming people in greater numbers (larger venues are being booked!) and utilising the feedback to help create programmes which meet the needs of those attending.

We have also held a number of online network sessions and hosted webinars on topics which were identified by our networks. Interest in all of these continues to be high with our most recent webinars fully booked within 24 hours of being publicised. We are working to ensure the recordings are available to those who were unable to attend.

A number of smaller, more targeted discussion groups on specific topics have been held involving organisations who are experts in those areas.

We continue to hold monthly sessions for local suicide prevention leads ensuring they are kept up to date with delivery of Creating Hope Together, whilst our strategic outcome leads, and delivery leads meet monthly to keep track of progress against the action plan and identify opportunities for working across actions.

We know how important these kinds of opportunities are to help people keep up to date with research, build an understanding of what is being delivered across the country and to be able to make connections to others establishing partnerships and support networks. We welcome any ideas you have for future sessions and events, please just get in touch!

I’ve also had the opportunity to speak to many groups and audiences this year. The list is long but let me reflect on a few stand out events:

• The Canmore Trust Conference which focused on suicide prevention in Dentists, Doctors, Vets and Nurses
• The Chief Officers Public Protection Learning Event (COPPLE) attended by around 90 chief officers who have a responsibility for public protection. Suicide prevention was one of two key note topics for the event
• The Poverty Alliance event which brought together a number of organisations working to support people who experience poverty, helping them understand the connection between poverty and suicide and what they can do to support suicide prevention efforts

Saying goodbye (but not really)

We took the opportunity at the conference in May to wish Professor Steve Platt a very happy (final) retirement.

Steve has been an incredibly important figure for anyone who has been around suicide prevention in Scotland (and beyond!).

I have always been incredibly grateful for his kindness and willingness to help me, and others understand what the research means for us in practice.

Even when I was working as a local suicide prevention lead in Borders, Steve always responded to my emails asking for help and guidance. While he may have now officially retired, I still have his phone number, so he doesn’t get away from me that easily!

In November, we also said farewell to Rose Fitzpatrick as her time with us came to an end.

Rose has been such a steady pair of hands firstly as Chair of National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) leading the national suicide prevention work through the delivery of Every Life Matters.

More recently, as Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NSPAG) she has provided brilliant guidance through the first two years of Creating Hope Together.

Again, I am incredibly grateful for her support and guidance since I began working in COSLA nearly five years ago — I also have her number!

Delivering our work

This year we published the first annual report for Creating Hope Together. It set out what had been delivered against the action plan in the first year of implementation.

Alongside this we published our second delivery plan which will take us to the end of 2025.

Sometimes it’s hard when we are in the midst of delivering our plans to see how much we are actually delivering so writing these provided a real opportunity to reflect on what we had achieved in our first year.

As we approach the end of 2024, I’m beginning to put together the next annual report which will be published in summer 2025. This time, we will be focusing on the outcomes and demonstrating how our work is contributing to the long term outcomes set out in Creating Hope Together.

All our delivery and strategic outcome leads, and Academic Advisory Group have been working really hard, not just on delivering the work they are responsible for, but also in helping to develop the monitoring and evaluation tool, Outnav. We’re using this platform to help demonstrate the impact the work we are delivering is having.

Their collective hard work means that we will be able to use Outnav to create the next annual report which will in turn help us be more focused on the outcomes.

I also want to say an enormous thank you to the team at Matter of Focus who have supported us all on this journey.

I am extremely grateful to the brilliant team of people I have the pleasure of working with. There are over a dozen different organisations who have responsibility for delivering the Creating Hope Together action plan and many others who give their time to help to make sure that everything we do meets the needs of the people when they need it.

Their willingness to work together across organisations and provide support to each other is inspiring — I’m not aware of another programme of work where different third sector and public sector organisations work in such a collaborative partnership. It is inspiring to be part of it all.

We are also fortunate that our work is designed and developed with support from our Lived and Living Experience Panel, Youth Advisory Group, Participation Network and Lived and Living Experience Steering Group. The people on these groups provide not only their insights to help us in our work but also a reminder of why it is important. It is a privilege to be able to work alongside them.

Of course, there will be people reading this who have lost someone important to them to suicide over the last year and will no doubt feel that there is still so much more we need to do.

I absolutely agree with that sentiment. The suicide statistics published in August told us that, too.

But I also firmly believe that our strategy and action plan, means we are doing the right things and have the right people and organisations in place to help make the difference we all want to see.

Critically, these plans have been shaped by the experiences and ideas of people and organisations across Scotland, many of whom had lived and living experience of suicide,

I am looking forward to continuing our work into 2025, to building more relationships and connecting with more people and organisations who will help us achieve our ambition of reducing deaths by suicide, and in turn Creating Hope Together.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, please reach out for help, speak to someone you trust or call one of these helplines:

• Samaritans — 116 123 or use the online chat at samaritans.org
• Breathing Space — 0800 83 85 87
• NHS 24 mental health hub — 111
• PAPYRUS HOPELINE247 — 0800 068 4141 or text 88247

If you are ever in immediate danger or have the means to cause yourself harm you should dial 999 and request an ambulance.