Thrive LDN

How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?

Thrive LDN is a citywide movement to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Londoners; ‘A Zero Suicide City’ is one of its six aspirations for London. Thrive LDN recognise that action in the other five aspirations would look to have a positive impact on suicide reduction. The area of suicide prevention has its own Task and Finish Group and workstream to develop specific actions around suicide prevention and reduction, with a range of members from the NHS, Public Health England (PHE), Local Authorities, the MET, British Transport Police (BTP), the Coastguard, Network Rail, the third sector and academia. Those with lived experience also play a vital role within our group, and our Co-Chair has lived experience within the area. Thrive LDN is also looking to share best practice across London in a number of areas, including support for the bereaved, and actively promotes best practice toolkits, including those focused on postvention.

For more information on Thrive LDN and our aspirations, please visit our website – www.thriveldn.co.uk

What are your current priorities?

Thrive LDN will work closely with partners to build upon existing suicide prevention and reduction initiatives, aspiring to make London a zero suicide city.

Thrive LDN intends to make connections with partners across London, in order to learn from their current good practices of working, and enable connections and conversations with London partners that will assist suicide prevention and reduction. We will be involving partnership working in some form across all of our actions, as Thrive LDN consider partnerships and collaborative action vital in creating change. All our actions have been developed in order to work towards the ultimate aspiration of making the capital a zero suicide city.

Explore working with Merseyside, the West Midlands and the East of England who are working towards a zero suicide ambition, to create a consistent approach.

Thrive LDN intends to explore and learn from other cities in England’s experiences as zero suicide cities, in order to provide Thrive with the best knowledge to take forward its suicide prevention and reduction objectives and reduce suicides as a result. This work would be in order to work towards the ultimate aspiration of reducing suicides to zero within the capital.

Continue to support and learn from London’s rail system organisations to reduce the opportunities for people to end their lives by suicide through these means.

Thrive LDN recognises the good work already underway by partners such as Transport for London and Network Rail, British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police to reduce the opportunities for people to end their lives by suicide on the Underground and Overground rail system in the capital. Thrive LDN intends to work with these partners further to learn from their experiences and best practice, and also to support on a pan-London basis wherever possible.

Promote evidence-informed suicide prevention training and toolkits to increase uptake.

Thrive LDN aims to further research and learn from partners regarding training and toolkits based in evidence on the area of suicide prevention to increase the uptake from individuals and organisations. One such good example of an employee-focused suicide prevention and postvention toolkit is from Business in the Community and Public Health England:https://wellbeing.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/toolkits/suicide-prevention-toolkit https://wellbeing.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/toolkits/suicide-postvention-toolkit

Work closely with partners to ensure we have more accurate and timely collection of information and get a clearer picture of suicide in London.

This aspiration is centred around receiving the help of partners, organisations and Londoners. Thrive LDN wants to work closely with its partners including local authorities and the NHS to work towards obtaining a method of pan-London data sharing systems. This would allow for more accurate and timely information collection, and can therefore enable greater planning regarding methods of suicide prevention.

Encourage and support ways to share information across London that can help to prevent more people losing their lives through suicide.

This aspiration is centred around receiving the help of partners, organisations and Londoners. Thrive LDN would like to discuss further with partners about how Thrive can assist enabling the prompt sharing of information between services across the whole of London in order to prevent suicides.

Bring together colleagues from across London including the police and coroners to explore how we can achieve greater consistency in understanding suicides in London.

This aspiration is centred around receiving the help of partners, organisations and Londoners. Thrive LDN recognises that establishing a cause of death as suicide, is a complex and multi factorial process for coroners and the police. Thrive LDN would like to opportunity to speak further with these partners, regarding the possibility of achieving greater consistency of understanding suicides in London, to enable partners to start developing suicide prevention methods as a result.

What challenges are you currently facing?

In 2015, 735 Londoners took their own lives; more than 14 people every week. Although London’s suicide rate is the lowest in England, it varies significantly across the capital. Thrive LDN are also aware that people in particular groups are at higher risk of suicide. They include young people who may have been in care, people who have been the victims of sexual or physical violence, people coming out of the armed forces, LGBT+ communities and those who have come into contact with the criminal justice system; social and economic factors also have an impact.

In all of its aspirations to improve mental health and wellbeing for all Londoners, Thrive LDN believes partnership working is paramount to creating meaningful change.  Within suicide prevention, Thrive LDN particularly considers partnership working key in areas such as the data collection of suicides across London to inform methods of prevention.