Kent and Medway suicide prevention: Online consultation and workshops

Every suicide is a tragic event which has a devastating impact on the friends and family of the victim, and can be felt across the whole community. Sadly suicide accounts for approximately 1% of all deaths in Kent and Medway every year. While the events and circumstances leading to each suicide will be different, there are a number of areas where action can be taken to help prevent loss of life.

A multi-agency steering group (including local authorities, health representatives, the police, charities and individual carers) have developed a draft suicide prevention strategy and would like to hear your views.

There are a number of ways your voice can be heard. These include:

• An online consultation on the Kent County Council website. It can be accessed by clicking here or search online for “Kent suicide consultation”. The closing date for you to submit your views is 20 Mar 2015.
• A workshop examining the specific issue of self harm. This event (the morning of 26^th February in Gillingham) is designed to raise awareness of self harm and discuss how we can address this issue in Kent & (More details and the booking form for this event are available in this poster. Or please email [email protected])
• A workshop to develop the suicide prevention action plan to accompany the draft strategy. The aim of this event (the afternoon of 18^th March in Ashford) is to provide an opportunity for carers, bereaved families, voluntary organisations and anyone with an interest in suicide prevention to feed their views into the design of a five-year action plan. (If you would like more details and the booking form for this event please email ([email protected])

Please forward these details to any of your contacts or colleagues who may be interested. The consultation documents are available in alternative formats and languages. Please email [email protected] or call Tim Woodhouse on 03000 416857 for further information.