Suicide prevention in Brighton goes viral

A  viral suicide prevention campaign is kicking off in Brighton to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th.

We will launch our video ‘I Am Alive’ (http://bit.ly/IAmAlive) at the Rock Inn in Kemptown, Brighton.  

MP Caroline Lucas will make a special online appearance together with suicide prevention colleagues in Canada and USA.  Other guests lined up for this special event include:

• Kate Bornstein – author of ‘Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws’
• Friends of Emmet – an Irish band living in LA

• Susan Aglukark – internationally acclaimed Inuk folk musician and chair of the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation

• A brand new interpretation of Gloomy Sunday, the ‘suicide song’ by Angi  Mariani from Brighton’s Latest magazine

• Tom Scanlon, chair of Brighton & Hove's Suicide Prevention Strategy Working Party

Please join us!  If you can't be there in person, don't worry: the event will be screened live and made available worldwide via social networking site Twitter at #WSPD.

We believe that when people come together in support of suicide prevention hope can be strengthened and changes made to happen.  

                                            

Around one in 20 of us will contemplate suicide at some point this year.  But we can do something about it and that’s what the video shows - it promotes a positive message that if people reach out to others then lives can be saved.  Not talking about suicide simply isn’t working.

Suicide prevention isn’t only the preserve of doctors and social workers – anyone can help.

The ‘I Am Alive’ video contains inspirational personal accounts of how people’s reasons for living, however ‘small’, helped them to choose life instead of suicide.   We are asking people to support the ‘I Am Alive’ campaign by forwarding the video to at least 20 people.  We’d also like supporters to talk about suicide with anyone they’re concerned about, and to donate to the website to pay for training.

Brighton has the second highest suicide rate in England. The highest is Blackpool.  Risk factors for suicide include mental illness, substance misuse, unemployment, poor social support networks.

Find out more about World Suicide Prevention Day: http://www.iasp.info/wspd/