Tag Archives: suicide

Caron Lindsay

WATCH: US Congressman’s beautiful and heartbreaking tribute to his son

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2021 - 4:41 pm

Content warning: Suicide:

I have been known to become exceptionally sweary while watching Sunday morning news programmes. The inane and out of touch utterances of some politicians drive me mad.

But today I was moved to tears by the proud and loving way in which Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin talked about his son, who died by suicide on New Year’s Eve.

He was very open about what he had been through, and spoke so eloquently about his son Tommy and what he had brought to the world. He sounds like a wonderful, community minded, considerate person who lived his values.

Four days after Tommy died, Rep Raskin and his wife Sarah wrote a tribute to him which was full of love and warmth.

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The Voice

“It’s time to break the silence surrounding male suicide”

By The Voice | Tue 24th November 2015 - 11:26 am

Norman Lamb and his son Archie opened up on ITV News about Archie’s depression and thoughts of suicide. In a very moving interview with Mark Austin they say what it is like to live with mental illness.

Archie explains:

It just takes over your head. You can’t think of anything else. When you get into depression you cannot think of anything else apart from the gloom of how you are thinking. In my toughest moments you don’t feel like there’s any escape. … I’ve had those thoughts ever since I can remember. They’re not very nice thoughts to have, obviously. It’s really, really horrible and you feel embarrassed to talk about them. At the time I wouldn’t have spoken to my parents about it, or my friends because it is embarrassing.

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Iain Roberts

Opinion: Mixed news on suicide tells us where to target our efforts

By Iain Roberts | Mon 23rd February 2015 - 4:00 pm

The UK suicide rate rose again in 2013, a worrying statistic that we should pay close attention to. True, the rate is still lower than at any time between 1981 and 2001 but, even so, the rise since 2007  should be of great concern.

But the overall figure masks some important variations. If we want to tackle the problem, we need to know where to focus our efforts and it turns out that suicides are not increasing for all groups.

Here is the good news: the suicide rate for women has fallen and is now the second lowest on record. For women aged 15-19 the news is even better: the suicide rate for this group is by some margin the lowest on record. Across nearly all ages, the number of women committing suicide is down or static.

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Catherine Royce

Opinion: Time to dump the 4 hour A & E target

By Catherine Royce | Thu 29th January 2015 - 3:49 pm

To be frank, as a doctor, I have been underwhelmed by our Liberal Democrat offering on health issues over the years; certainly we are not as strong on health as we should be.

The almost daily drip feed from the right wing press on NHS shortcomings and failures is demoralising to staff and frightening to patients and designed to be so. It serves no-one except those who want to undermine the public’s confidence in the NHS. The service treats three quarters of a million patients every day of the year, and for most people there is no alternative.

So I am  relieved that at last we have something distinctive to offer with Norman Lamb’s ideas on mental health; parity of access and delivery, more  research and funding. This is important, and we need to ‘own’ it as Liberal Democrat policy.

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Mary Reid

Clegg: “Suicide is preventable, it is not inevitable”

By Mary Reid | Mon 19th January 2015 - 3:06 pm

Liberal Democrats are making sure that mental health stays in the headlines, and that our policies are linked in people’s minds with the issues. Today the focus has been on preventing suicide. Here was Nick Clegg speaking this morning:

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Reg Yeates

Opinion: Suicide is preventable: we need a coordinated approach to reduce needless deaths

By Reg Yeates | Wed 10th September 2014 - 10:25 am

The reporting of suicide in the national media usually only occurs when the deceased is rich, famous, or infamous. Yet it is approximated that one person dies from suicide every 40 seconds.  A report from the World Health Organisation,  Preventing Suicide – A Global Imperative,  examines the need for urgent action to reduce suicide rates by 10% within 6 years. A tall task: made difficult as worldwide the stigma attached to mental health and suicide itself, pushes the subject into the background: an ever-growing elephant in the room. In my case an ever growing Black Dog. That according to WHO is 800 000 people a year and an estimated 20 per person who has died has attempted suicide.

In the United Kingdom, it is evident that more males than females commit suicide: in 2012, there were 4360 reported suicides of which 3400 were male, approximately 3 ½ times that of females. There is a strong reluctance with men to discuss their problems whether they be concerned with mental health or other situational circumstances. The highest rates are with men over 30 years old.

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes: One suicide is one too many

By Norman Lamb MP | Wed 12th September 2012 - 12:47 pm

On average, someone commits suicide in England every two hours. That’s over 4,200 suicides a year. That figure may shock you. But what is just as shocking is that a lesbian, gay or bisexual person is twice as likely as a heterosexual person to self harm

I was drawing this awful statistic to people’s attention because Monday was World Suicide Prevention Day. It was also the occasion for me to the launch the Government’s new Suicide Prevention Strategy – the first for ten years. It is based on evidence of what works. Credit is due to Paul Burstow who …

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Stephen Gilbert MP

Stephen Gilbert MP writes: How do we deal with the high prevalence of suicides in the LGBT community?

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Thu 21st July 2011 - 1:48 pm

We all know how the following story works. Governments use stats to demonstrate the problem. And then they give us their answer. The more shocking the figures, so it goes, the greater the need for bold action. But too often we don’t consider the human impact of these figures.

Let me give you an example. This week I learnt that every two hours one person dies as a result of suicide in England. It is truly harrowing to think that each and every day, so many people feel they have nowhere else to turn and end up taking their lives. We …

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