Priority 3: Impact
Raising our voice to make suicide prevention a priority
Influencing suicide prevention across the UK and Ireland.
This year, we spent £5.6m on this strategic priority area.
England
In September 2023 we welcomed publication of a new national suicide prevention strategy for England. Samaritans was at the forefront of the process to develop this important strategy, working alongside people with lived experience, officials and cross-party parliamentarians and inspiring our campaigners to keep the pressure on.
The strategy contains a host of things that we pushed for and recognises Samaritans’ important role. We were highly critical, however, when the Autumn Statement failed to commit the funds required – just £1.40 per person – to continue providing vital local suicide prevention funding. We will keep pushing the Government to invest in saving lives from suicide.
Samaritans campaigners and volunteers met with MPs and councillors outside Parliament to call for continued investment into local suicide prevention funding.
Wales
A new dedicated suicide prevention strategy was published for Wales this year. We took part in the drafting group that developed the plan – the only charity to do so. One area we were particularly involved in was shaping the consultation process with children and young people. We wanted to ensure the process was meaningful, while mitigating the risks of engaging young audiences in this challenging subject matter.
Scotland
Scotland’s latest suicide prevention strategy runs until 2032 and we have been appointed by the Scottish Government to lead on delivering Outcome 1: The environment we live in promotes conditions which protect against suicide risk. We made progress on that this year by bringing people together to share best practice in reducing risk at locations of concern – such as railways and bridges. This will inform the development of a national approach on this issue, alongside reducing access to means of suicide.
Northern Ireland
This year we began work to establish the Mental Health Policy Alliance: a collaboration to reduce suicide rates by driving policy change in Northern Ireland. The Alliance will pool expertise and draw on the strengths of each member organisation to influence lasting policy changes more effectively than any single group could do alone.
As part of our influencing work, we held a seminar and panel discussion at Stormont on the progress and challenges of mental health in Northern Ireland. We also responded to policy consultations for the Northern Ireland Budget and the Public Health Agency Consultation for Those Bereaved by Suicide. We contributed to the Protect Life 2 Suicide Prevention Strategy extension and called for further investment in suicide prevention services.
Ireland
In Ireland we turned our focus to building an effective working relationship with the new office of the Online Safety Commissioner within Coimisiún na Meán (the Media Commission), which has a key national role to make the internet a safer space. We provided input into drafts of the Online Safety Code, stressing the importance of minimising harmful content and maximising opportunities for support, as well as providing adequate training and support for the people tasked with moderating online spaces.
Online safety
Sometimes I think people post things without really thinking about the consequence it might have on people that see it. It’s fine to be open and honest and vent online, but what about the people that will see that – how might it affect them? I think around the topic of suicide, I’ve seen some conversations that are started on platforms that aren’t moderated by social media companies and should be.
Elsa, one of the young people who helped us develop our guidance
After five years of determined pressure, in 2023 we welcomed a new UK law which will help create a suicide-safer internet. Every part of the Samaritans movement has been working on the Online Safety Bill since it was first announced in 2019. With us, hundreds of people with lived experience and our campaigners told the Government it must prioritise suicide and self-harm, and when the draft Bill wasn’t strong enough, we said so together – influencing its content all the way through its passage through Westminster.
Our contributions were informed by our Online Excellence Programme, which has generated robust evidence around online harms and support. We’ve worked with academics, social media companies and search engines, young people and parents, and engaged over 11,000 mental health practitioners. Our resources on how to keep safe online has reached over 2.5 million people, and our industry guidance on how to deal with suicide and self-harm content has been viewed over 4,200 times.
Safer public spaces
We’ve worked in a range of ways to help reduce the risk of suicide in certain public locations this year. We continued to help National Highways to make the road network safer, including ensuring their strategy is informed by the latest evidence. We’ve trained thousands of people on how to make potentially life-saving interventions in public –including over 2,600 rail staff through our long-running partnership with Network Rail. And we’ve played a coordinating role for the Safer Public Spaces Network, which brings experts and organisations together from across the UK to improve protections around high-risk locations.
Responsible portrayal of suicide
Our well-respected media advisory services supported hundreds more journalists and programme makers to understand how to report and portray suicide responsibly. Our advice extended from local news outlets to a helpful mental health storyline in Emmerdale and some very high profile and challenging news stories about suicide. Media outlets are listening; this year fewer than one per cent of stories named novel methods of suicide – something that we advise against – and over three-quarters included supportive signposting.
Akeem, Samaritans volunteer in London