Reflections at a time of change
As National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (NSPAG) chair Rose Fitzpatrick CBE QPM prepares to step down from her role, she’s written about the opportunity to succeed her in this important position.
If you’ve spotted this advertisement for a new Chair to lead Scotland’s National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group (the NSPAG) and gone so far as to click on the link, I think you already know that suicide prevention is about saving people’s lives and preventing the devastating tragedy that each suicide brings to families, friends, colleagues and communities.
I think, like me, you believe we all have a role to play in preventing suicide.
I’m also certain you can see how important it is to support, advise, constructively challenge and add to collective leadership for suicide prevention in Scotland — which is what the NSPAG exists to do.
In 2018, a week after retiring from policing after 31 years, I was asked to consider establishing and chairing a new National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group for Scotland.
I’d planned a break from public service and needed a rest.
I didn’t have a professional background in suicide prevention.
But like you, I found I was being asked if I thought saving lives was important, was everyone’s business and was therefore my business?
I found I was asking myself if I had personal experiences and skills I could bring to this leadership role, and if I could convene, learn from and collaborate with others who knew much more than I did about suicide prevention, to make a difference.
My answer was yes.
I’ve now had the further privilege of establishing and chairing for its first year the NSPAG, set up to provide independent and impartial advice to those delivering Scotland’s new Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022–2032: Creating Hope Together.
That advice is based on engagement with people with lived and living experience of the impacts of suicide, with suicide prevention practitioners and with academics.
Members of the NSPAG are already using their insights from their wide variety of personal, policy and professional backgrounds to extend the reach of suicide prevention across the whole of society.
They deserve a Chair who is as passionate and compassionate as they are, and as determined to play their part in preventing suicide. If you’ve read this far you’re hearing the same questions I did.
What will your answer be?
The Scottish Government has begun the process of recruiting a new NSPAG chair. Find out about the role and how to apply, here.
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 email Jo@samaritans.org or go online and use the online chat at www.samaritans.org
- Breathing Space 0800 83 85 87
- NHS 24 mental health hub on 111
