Suicide prevention cards success

Suicide prevention leaflets have produced “great feedback and positive results” even before their first run of 20,000 copies was printed.

The Shropshire and Telford Suicide Prevention Network designed the green folding ‘z-card’ which features the message ‘Pick up the phone, you are not alone’ and contact information for the NHS, support organisations and listening services.

Responsible officer Gordon Kochane told Shropshire Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board that one concerned family member had been sent an electronic copy of the leaflet after raising concerns about a family member, but printed copies are now in prominent locations around the county.

Councillor Dean Carroll, Shropshire’s cabinet member for adult social services, praised the scheme and said: “Suicide prevention is everyone’s duty and every life is worth saving.”

Mr Kochane told the Shropshire Council Health and Wellbeing Board that 20,000 of the z-cards, which are the size of a credit card, had been distributed around the local authority area and neighbouring Telford and Wrekin.

He said they had been placed in GP practices, libraries and the A&E departments of both of the county’s main hospitals and had received “some really good feedback”.

He added that, before the cards had even been printed, a member of the public had raised concerns about a family member and had been sent an electronic copy.

“So these cards were making a difference even before they existed as physical copies,” Mr Kochane said.

“This is available on the Shropshire Council website to download as a PDF, and we would encourage people to share that as widely as possible.”

HWB chair Lee Chapman said: “When the next 20,000 coming?”

Mr Kochane said: “We have a version that can be printed by anyone. If other agencies and organisations would like physical copies, come to me and we can provide you with those.

“We would also like to work with the private sector.”

Cllr Carroll: “Traditionally people have always been reticent to talk about or acknowledge suicide, both within themselves and concerns about family members.

“But we can’t leave suicide prevention purely to the professionals. Many of the people who go on to take their own lives have no contact, or almost no contact, with any professionals.

“Suicide prevention is everyone’s duty and every life is worth saving.”