This World Suicide Prevention Day (Friday 10 September) West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership have launched a new website dedicated to helping people with suicidal thoughts and those concerned for the mental wellbeing of anyone who lives in West Yorkshire.
The West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention website is an information portal coproduced by a group of organisations including Third Sector, NHS and local authorities who are all working to reduce death by suicide in the region.
Key content on the site includes:
- Details of organisations that support people who are feeling suicidal
- Information about the West Yorkshire Suicide Bereavement Service, which offers 1- to-1 and group peer support to anyone who has lost a friend, family member or colleague to suicide
- News and information about suicide prevention partners locally and nationally, including specialist support for men.
National figures published by the Office of National Statistics on 1 September 2020 show that Yorkshire and the Humber region had the highest suicide rate in England. In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, there has been an increase from 10.6 per 100,000 between 2016-18 to 11.88 between 2017 and 2019 (latest available figures).
For people in Leeds, MindWell has lots of resources that can help you find support in a crisis. Their foldable crisis sheet has recently been updated in partnership with Healthwatch Leeds.
Jessica Parker, Suicide Prevention Project Manager for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Suicide Prevention Programme said: “We want to continue to normalise conversations about mental health and suicide. Asking someone about whether they feel suicidal will not increase the chances of them taking their own life, indeed it could prevent suicide. We hope that this new website will make it clear that there is support available and give the right information about where to go for help.”
You can join the conversation around World Suicide Prevention Day on Twitter using #WSPD2021.
