Today is World Suicide Prevention Day and it seems timely to write this blog while attending the 17th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour in the beautiful city of Ghent.
Suicide is a global public health concern. By the time you finish reading this blog, approximately 8 people will have taken their life. The impact on those left behind? Indescribable.
However, neither I nor hundreds of other researchers across the world have chosen to work in the field of suicide if we didn’t wholeheartedly believe that suicide is preventable.
How is it preventable? One might ask…. By working collaboratively, I would answer. As a researcher at the Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham I work closely within a team of clinicians, researchers and academics across different disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, education, medical sociology, social policy and anthropology. What is more important is that our work is led by the voice and insights of young people with lived experience who are there to ensure that our research is relevant to THEIR needs. Is it easy? No. If you have not had a research proposal shred into pieces by an advisory group of people with lived experience then you cannot understand! And if you are not humbled by working side by side with people with lived experience because you realise that despite all your qualifications you actually know very little on the subject, then you are not doing your work properly.
It is very challenging working with people who come from very different backgrounds and may hold very different views on the very same topic. But, as I’ve said before, we have to challenge ourselves. Suicide is a complex issue and one of the reasons why our understanding of suicide and its multiple determinants remains disjointed is that we work in silos. But we cannot afford to do that anymore. After all, suicide is everyone’s business.
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