Talking about suicide and suicide prevention is at the heart of preventing suicides, and yet so many people shy away from this (potentially life-saving) conversation. So let’s not shy away, let’s talk! — In the UK, more than 6,000 people die by suicide each year. Anyone who has even the most basic knowledge of suicide prevention will tell you that opening up the conversation is a key part of the solution to reducing these numbers.

Is what you’re doing empowering or disempowering? — A year ago, OECD invited comments on its ‘Good Practice Principles for Deliberative Processes for Public Decision Making’. I replied by highlighting that Empowerment was missing from that list of guiding principles. It’s still missing — it didn’t make it into the final version published in OECD’s ‘Deliberative Wave’ report…

How COVID19 challenged some biases but not others! — I remember the Johari Window from my early coaching training. We all have blind spots. The challenge is to try and become more self-aware and listen to feedback from others to reveal sub-conscious biases and be able to address them, or at least make them conscious. Throughout 2019, and in…

How one-eyed lobbying for one perceived solution can make people blind to other solutions…and the reasons why we’re NOT advocating for a Citizens’ Assembly on Suicide Prevention! — There are so many ways we can improve our democracy, it’s important not to just get obsessively focused on what we might think is one way or the best way to enhance democracy to the point of stifling discussion and debate around all the alternatives. …

Time for some healthy self-deliberation! — Many recent publications about Citizens’ Assemblies and Citizens’ Juries have focused on how to design and implement them, as the ‘Deliberative Wave’ promotion of these deliberative processes has tried to move us quickly on, often discouraging critical analysis — one prominent DelibWave advocate told me, worryingly, “the science is settled…

As promised at the #OTGSP event, on 10 September 2020, the Organising Team has been collating a list of useful sources and resources. — This post brings together resources that: the organising team have researched and sourced, have been recommended by those in our networks, including by Mental Health First Aiders who joined our breakfast takeover on 19 August, and, our contributors and speakers at the World Suicide Prevention Day event have recommended.

We know enough about how to save lives to say it’s time for action — practical action! — The Global ‘Zero Suicide Community’, collaborative initiatives across the UK, regional & local partnerships, and a dynamic network of people with Lived Experience of suicide loss, have been coming together in 2020 to highlight actions to save lives — inspiring others with their thinking, their passion, their demonstration of ‘what…

Routes to a community (your community) without suicide! — I write this piece at a time when three significant events are happening in my life and work. Firstly, after 6 months of engagement with key partners in the global ‘Zero Suicide Community’, we’ve mapped out the ‘desired state’ vision for moving towards zero suicides, and how to achieve this…

On 10 September One Team Gov will be running an event on the theme of Suicide Prevention, find out about our first set of collaborators here — 10 September is World Suicide Prevention Day, designed to raise awareness of the human tragedy of suicide and also raise awareness of (practical) steps we can all take to help save lives. This blog post showcases the One Team Gov event #OTGSP #WSPD2020 taking place on 10 September 2020 at…