SOS Award Cheltenham based Suicide Crisis
Suicide Crisis is being accessed by people who say that they would not go to their GP
Suicide Crisis, a Cheltenham based charity which offers a safe space for people who have suicidal thoughts so they can be heard and supported, have been recognised for their dedication to suicide prevention in receiving The SOS Suicide Safer Community Award.
Suicide Crisis was set up in 2013 by a forward thinking survivor of suicidal crisis. She couldn’t find the type of support she needed, so she set about creating it in Gloucestershire. Suicide Crisis has a small team who get to know clients well, and offer continuity of care. The Team members are very well-trained, but their personal qualities (empathy, kindness and commitment) are of even great importance. The charity is being accessed by people who say that they would not go to their GP or other services.
The SOS award is a new accolade that is presented to organisations that have gone that extra mile to support communities to be suicide safer.
The SOS programme champions suicide prevention both across communities and within organisations with the clear goal of reducing the stigma that surrounds suicide through campaigning, local strategic support and specialist training.
Joy Hibbins, Founder and Director at Suicide Crisis insisted that two of the volunteers collect the reward – “Janie Dimopoulos and Rupinder Kaur Bassi are receiving the award on behalf of Suicide Crisis. The award is in recognition of the work that Suicide Crisis does and it’s in particular recognition of the exceptional team that we have. Janie and Rupinder epitomise the kind of dedicated, highly skilled, caring individuals that make up our team.”
Recent national and regional Public Health information has shown that Gloucestershire continues to have a much higher suicide rate than the national average. However, only a third of the people who have completed suicide in those years had used mental health services.
Joy said : “This award is so important to us as it recognises how crucial our service and our volunteers are, being able to reach people who would not normally seek help from other sources. Suicide is much higher amongst men than it is for women, and our service has been accessed by a considerable number of men to the point that we are seeing more men than women.”
For more information about the work of Suicide Crisis go to www.suicidecrisis.co.uk
With an overall goal of supporting communities to be Suicide Safer, Forward For Life adopts a number of approaches to reduce inequalities and promote opportunities for enhanced well-being and improved quality of life – We believe this is both an achievable expectation across all our communities and the right of each and every individual within.
All work undertaken by Forward For Life looks to achieve both indirect and direct benefits for our communities, and with this in mind, we ensure that our partners, our associates and others’ working alongside us have the same core belief.
