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CALM (The Campaign Against Living Miserably) needed an office and to employ more staff to help expand their hard hitting and effective campaign which is targeted towards young men. Due to matched funding, the grant of £30,000 made by JWSMF generated £60,000 to help CALM.
In recognition of the particular problem of suicide amongst young people in crisis, JWSMF is supporting the AMBIT Project at the Anna Freud Centre. This involves a number of teams around the UK who provide training forums for voluntary sector initiatives helping vulnerable young people. The aim of AMBIT is to train and support a network of inexpensive, extensively supported and mutually supporting general field workers. Their role is to provide accessible, approachable and immediate help for young people in crisis. AMBIT has received considerable acclaim and is welcomed by health professionals.
Understanding the experience of bereavement by suicide – a training package for professionals
In September 2014, JWSMF awarded a grant to Oxford Health Experiences Institute (HEXI) and Professor Keith Hawton, Centre for Suicide Research at Oxford University to develop educational resources to assist responders to people bereaved by suicide.
Responders in this context could include both clinicians and other agencies (e.g. police). The materials that will be used to develop the resources will be based on archival materials obtained during the development of the Healthtalkonline module on bereavement by suicide.
The resource will be completed by March 2015.
JWSMF gave The Charlie Waller Institute a grant in 2011 which was used in three different ways:
1) To fund 20 days of short training at the Charlie Waller Institute for charities and service users working in mental health.
2) To fund one Certificate in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatment at the Charlie Waller Institute. Those working for charities associated with mental health treatment were given priority although those working in the NHS were also eligible to apply.
3) Together with the Centre for Suicide Research and Oxford University, CWI hosted a closed meeting of national suicide prevention experts, international leaders in the field of suicide prevention, leading politicians and leading NHS Clinicians. The outcomes of the various workshops of the day were consolidated into a document called the Guildford Consensus Statement. The plan is for these outcomes to be implemented further by the Samaritans in their Call to Action campaign, in the Government’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy and by TASC (The Alliance for Suicide Prevention Charities).
What?
James’ Place is a non-clinical centre for men experiencing suicidal ideation. It is the first service of its kind in the UK. Taking referrals from local hospitals, student counselling services and police and street triage services, visitors will be offered a service of one-to-one therapeutic support during their time of need.
Why?
At the tender age of 21, James Wentworth-Stanley chose to take his own life following a minor operation 10 days before. An irreversible decision which he chose to make, even though he reached out for help. Having told a consultant he was feeling suicidal, he was then referred to A&E as a category-four (low priority), where he sat on his own waiting to be seen for hours. In the end, too much time passed without anyone speaking to James and he got up and walked away. James’ parent, Nick & Clare, believe that had there been a place for James to visit and speak to someone more immediately and with the right qualifications, his life could have been saved and probably countless other lives too.
How?
The opening of James’ Place has been made possible through a campaign run by his younger brother, Harry, called Row For James. Harry and three friends, Rory, Sam and Toby, rowed unassisted across the Atlantic in December 2016, raising over £600K for the James’ Place initiative.
Where?
The first James’ Place will be in Liverpool based in the Georgian Quarter. The team have chosen Liverpool as the first location due to many factors, the most significant one being able to work alongside Mersey Care, an NHS Foundation Trust, that are pioneering a Zero Suicide strategy in Liverpool.
When?
James’ Place is due to open at the end of September 2017.sui
In September 2014, JWSMF donated funds to support If U Care Share Foundation’s Inside Out campaign.
The Inside Out campaign was launched on Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day and was designed to get people talking. Suicide turns people’s lives “Inside Out” and so to raise awareness of the importance of talking about the way we feel, this campaign was launched in order to encourage people to bring what’s ‘inside’, ‘out’. The hope is that the conversation started by this campaign will just be the beginning of a much larger conversation that sees lives changed for the better.
The donation from JWSMF enables If U Care Share to produce a short film which will not only be used for this campaign but also in other training and awareness raising sessions.
JWSMF has recently donated funds to the National Children’s Bureau towards their role as hosts of a National Partnership for Social and Emotional Well-being and Mental Health in Schools.
The National Partnership for Social and Emotional Well-being and Mental Health in Schools, which is made up of more than 50 organisations from the children and young people’s education and mental health sectors, is a unique collaboration of key national stakeholders committed to delivering a range of activities in support of ensuring that the well-being of children and young people is at the heart of education practice and policy.
The partnership is delivering a series of projects in 2015 to advance its ultimate goal of improving the social and emotional well-being and mental health of children and young people in schools.
These include:
Building an Active Network of members, who are committed to taking action to deliver our vision; creating a network of contacts, information and resources to facilitate collaboration.
Creating understanding, advocating and influencing to develop an evidence base and create a climate in which increasing numbers of people agree that promoting the emotional well-being and good mental health of all children and young people in schools is imperative
Providing advice and sharing best practice, acting as a source of expert advice, guidance and resources to partner organisations and public bodies, including Government agencies and schools
Mobilising action for promoting and planning wider well-being, life chances and achievement.
In 2013, JWSMF gave a grant to Nightline Association, an organisation that runs vital student-led listening and information services providing support to over 1.5 million higher education students who have access to a Nightline service. Nightlines receive calls on a wide variety of topics including depression, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, loneliness and more. They improve accessibility to local mental health support and it is a totally confidential service. Thanks to the grant from JWSMF, together with grants from Charlie Waller Memorial Trust and the Matthew Elvidge Trust, Nightline Association were able to train 10 volunteers to deliver the Connecting with People Suicide Awareness and Emotional Resilience training to Nightline volunteers in universities across the UK.
To date 434 Nightline volunteers have accessed the courses which equip them with the knowledge, tools and skills to respond more competently and confidently to callers who self-harm or express suicidal thoughts whilst maintaining good mental health themselves.
Open Minds is a national mental health education programme that trains medical students to deliver mental health workshops in secondary schools.
Thanks to the continued support of JWSMF in 2014, the following has been enabled to happen:
– Completion of the fifth OpenMinds programme at University College London (UCL) involving 12 medical students and approximately 300 school students
– Completion of the first OpenMinds programme at Birmingham involving 50 medical students and approximately 750 school students
– Completion of the first OpenMinds programme at Kings College London (student numbers to be confirmed)
– Development of a programme at Imperial College London which will run as an accelerated programme in November 2014
– Collection of data from school and medical students in order to evaluate the impact of OpenMinds across existing programmes
– Delivery of a workshops at the National Student Psychiatry Conference in Birmingham (February 2014), and the Student Minds conference in Oxford (March 2014), in order to raise awareness of OpenMinds and to recruit new medical schools
– National workshop in London involving all OpenMinds committees to discuss progress and future plans (January 2014)
JWSMF has funded the UK launch of this important book through the Child Bereavement Trust and also for the author, Dr. Diana Sands, to make a tour of the UK presenting her book through workshops and symposiums. For more information, to get a copy, or to book a place at one of Dr. Sand’s symposiums or workshops click here
“Red Chocolate Elephants is a remarkable resource for children bereaved by suicide. In a world where children are often forgotten mourners, this unique combination of text, pictures, and voices – all in the words of bereaved children themselves – is a treasured safe haven for young people to hear their fears, questions, and difficulties put into words by other children just like them.” John R. Jordan, PhD (Professional Advisor to Survivor Council of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention)
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