Background

In the UK alone, there are still over 5,000 suicides each year, and many, many more attempts. Because it is often the young who kill themselves, we lose well over 100,000 life years to suicide. Still more people are left reeling from the physical and mental effects of suicide attempts.

Only one in four people who kill themselves are in contact with mental health services. This means that the people who stand the most chance of preventing suicides are ordinary people; the friends, colleagues, neighbours and family members of those whose lives are at risk. 

Yet the role of ordinary members of the community in suicide prevention is mostly left unrecognised and unsupported. It has also been under-researched.

The aim of this project is to develop an understanding of the process of suicide from the perspective of those who have attempted suicide and those who have been bereaved by suicide. We want to enable more people to prevent suicides by recognising and responding to the signs that someone is at risk.

Health care professionals will also benefit from increased understanding of the process of suicide. Despite all the research to date, predicting a suicide is still incredibly difficult and many care providers are not able to respond appropriately where a risk is identified.

The project will run for approximately three years from September 2010, and we will start recruiting participants in January 2011.