Brenden Aaronson has joined a growing cohort of 'Champions' to show his support for a local suicide prevention campaign in an effort to help reduce the area’s above-average suicide rate.Health leade...
Brenden Aaronson has joined a growing cohort of 'Champions' to show his support for a local suicide prevention campaign in an effort to help reduce the area’s above-average suicide rate.
Health leaders in West Yorkshire have issued a clarion call to increase the number of Suicide Prevention Champions, alongside the Leeds United forward, as we count down to World Suicide Prevention Day on Wednesday 10th September.
West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) have launched its ‘Suicide Prevention Champions’ campaign, urging everyone to sign up and pledge their support to the ambition to lower the suicide rate for West Yorkshire.
The campaign aims to recruit Champions who are willing to take an active role in challenging stigma and raising awareness to help create a world where fewer people die by suicide.
Champions can access all the latest suicide prevention news, resources, support services and information so they can help spread the word and encourage suicide prevention action in their home, communities and workplaces across West Yorkshire and beyond.
Becoming a Suicide Prevention Champion takes minutes, signing up via an online form, and involves watching a 20-minute suicide awareness video, by the Zero Suicide Alliance, and making a pledge – big or small – about how you plan to promote suicide prevention and challenge stigma of suicide.
The campaign has set itself a target of recruiting 281 Suicide Prevention Champions by the end of the year – one for each of the 281 people whose deaths were registered as suicides in West Yorkshire coroners’ courts in 2021 - and then to keep growing.
Richard James, acting consultant in public health and lead for WY HCP’s suicide prevention programme, said: “We need everyone’s help in reducing suicides.
“We want all citizens of West Yorkshire to know that they can do something to change the status quo, even if this is as simple as putting up a poster at work.
“We know that if thousands of people across West Yorkshire make a small change, collectively we can bring our suicide rate down.
“Suicide deaths are preventable deaths, and you never know when you might have the opportunity to step in and say something which just might save a life.”
The most recent figures show West Yorkshire continues to have a higher suicide rate than England as a whole, with a rolling three-year rate in registered suicide deaths of 13.2 per 100,000 people in 2021, compared to 10.4 per 100,000 nationally.
The Suicide Prevention Champions campaign is not about dealing with people in crisis or offering mental health support but about learning when and where to signpost as well as taking action – through pledges – to champion suicide prevention.
You can read more and also watch the Suicide Prevention Champions video, featuring Brenden Aaronson, here.
For more information and to sign up, please visit https://suicidepreventionwestyorkshire.co.uk/becomeachampion.
Category: General Sports
