Wellbeing and World Suicide Prevention Day - By Lizzy Turek

Every year World Suicide Prevention Day, organised by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and the World Health Organisation, is marked on 10 September. Suicide prevention is a global challenge since it ranks consistently among the top 20 causes of death across all age groups, with over 800,000 people die by suicide every year across the world – that’s one person every 40 seconds (Suicide prevention and postvention | NHS Employers).

People in work spend about one third of their lives at their place of employment and the quality of our working life has a major impact on our mental health and wellbeing. Although employers can take action to create a workplace that reduces the potential risk of suicide the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found very few employers have frameworks in place to help employees access the support they need. In response to their findings the CIPD produced guides for both people professionals and managers on Responding to suicide risk in the workplace to offer advice on:

• why suicide is a workplace issue
• understanding suicide
• creating a supportive and positive culture for mental health
• responding to suicide risk
• support after suicide

As part of its commitment to support the industry, the Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC) partnered with Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) to deliver training courses for staff to become Mental Health First Aiders at work. Offering mental health first aid training helps staff and managers to spot the signs of stress and anxiety, and to signpost staff to support before issues escalate. They can provide not just a listening ear, but a lifeline for colleagues who are at risk of suicide.

As the International Association for Suicide Prevention advises, there are many things that we can all do daily, or particularly on World Suicide Prevention Day, from raising awareness about the issue, educating yourself and others about the causes of suicide and knowing the warning signs, questioning the stigma associated with suicide, suicidal behaviour and mental health issues.

Raise awareness

• Access information – IASP have information on their website about getting involved and have produced outreach briefs such as Suicide-The-Workplace-Outreach-Brief.pdf to support business leaders raise awareness and take action. These briefs also contain helpful links for workplace suicide prevention and postvention resources.
• Download a banner for World Suicide Prevention Day, incorporating this small addition to your email signature, an intranet or a website can help raise awareness and might help start a conversation about wellbeing in the workplace.
• Facilitate a more open forum for discussion through informal check-in about wellbeing and how things are going, rather than framing specifically around suicide.
• Raise the profile of Mental Health First Aiders - if your organisation has MHFAsalready in place, then this is a good opportunity to raise their profile.
• Show support - light a candle near a window at 8pm on 10^th September to support World Suicide Prevention Day, remember a lost loved one and for the survivors of suicide.

Educate yourself and others

• Samaritans provide in-house workplace training courses such as ‘Managing Suicidal Conversations’ in order to support staff to develop the skills and confidence.
• Another free 30-minute online training session Suicide awareness training from the Zero Suicide Allianceaims to provide the skills and confidence to help someone who may be considering suicide by breaking stigma and encouraging open conversations.
• This Suicide prevention toolkit was developed by Business in the Community and Public Health Englandto help senior leaders, managers, HR and occupational health professionals embed suicide prevention strategies in health and wellbeing policies, supporting those at risk.

Challenge the stigma

• There is a high degree of stigma and silence about suicide in society that extends into the workplace. CIPD argues that if someone who is struggling knows they can approach a colleague or a manager and be listened to with empathy and without judgement, this could be the first step in them accessing the help they need (Responding to suicide risk in the workplace: guidance for line managers).
• If employees are experiencing mental health issues, knowing how to refer them to more expert sources of help provided by your organisation – for example, an employee assistance programme (EAP) and occupational health services if available.

International Week of Happiness at Work (19-25 September) 

This is a Dutch initiative derived by Maartje Wolff and Fennande van der Meulen who launched the first International Week of Happiness at Work in 2018, together with Martin Leroy from Argentina. The reason for its formation was that they believe happiness at work is important and that when employees are happy at work, they are better parents, better friends, and better community members. This cheerful awareness day aims to promote happiness at work as essential to our wellbeing and business success. However, we can use this week as an opportunity to continue the important work around suicide prevention, highlighting the support materials, resources and training in order to improve mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

“To prevent suicide requires us to become a beacon of light to those in pain. You can be the light” (IASP).

Be beacon of light this September.

Lizzy Turek

Client Research Associate