#SuicideAwareness
- Miriam Mintz
- Feb 7, 2017
- 1 min read
I've seen a lot of #suicideawareness posts on my newsfeed recently and rather than just copy paste it, I'd like to add a few thoughts:
The mental health services in the UK in crisis. Despite the government's pledges to the contrary, funding has continually been cut leading to unsustainable workloads and insufficient patient care. We are yet to see any concrete investment as recently promised by our Prime Minister and a lot of us cannot help but feeling rather cynical about it.
75% of people with mental health problems are not receiving any care at all!
In addition to to the overstretched and underfunded NHS services, Charities providing therapy and counselling are also totally overwhelmed with demand. Our waiting list times are 6 months on average (in good times) and we receive next to nothing in terms of funding.
For this reason, it is even more important that we are aware of the fact that we can't just turn away when someone is struggling. They may not have access to the professional help they need. They may not know how to access it.
Do not ignore the signs. When someone expresses suicidal feelings, do not fob it off as an attempt to get attention. Most people who successfully take their own lives will have expressed their intentions before or even attempted it already.
The Samaritans, free call 116 123 (UK) are great and will be there to talk.
In crisis, Call 999 or take them to A&E where they will get assessed.
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