Trigger Warning: this news article includes mention of suicide.
World Suicide Prevention Day is on Tuesday 10 September 2024. The day was established to ‘raise awareness around the globe that suicide can be prevented’. We agree and highlight why this is so important through some shocking statistic:
- In 2022, there were 6,588 deaths registered in the UK where the cause was recorded as suicide. [1]
- Four in five suicides are by men, with suicide the biggest cause of death for men under 35. [2]
- And yet, only 6% of men, and 4% of women, said that they would discuss their mental health experiences with their employer. [3]
But these are just anonymised and aggregated data. Behind every death is an individual story.
Chris worked in construction for 30 years. In 2019, he experienced a mental health crisis brought on by severe work-related stress, which developed at rapid speed and had catastrophic consequences. Following Chris’s death by suicide, his family asked that his story be shared so that people, “Reach out before it becomes too late, because my family’s experienced it [suicide] and it’s the worst thing anyone can experience.”
It is not always possible to spot the signs of mental ill-health. For some people the happy, carefree demeanour they present to the world may mask their true feelings, experiences, concerns, fears and ill-health. Although separated by a decade, Robin Williams – one of the world’s most loved and talented comedic actors, died by suicide in August 2014, and more recently, Graham Thorpe, former England cricketer, died by suicide in August 2024.
According to a study, it is estimated that up to 135 people [4] can be affected by a single suicide – family, friends, colleagues, first responders including medical and police staff, and the wider community are also impacted.
“As family, friends, colleagues, community and employers we all have a role to play in trying to prevent someone reaching the point of crisis. For individuals, whilst everyone may exhibit different behaviours, or mask them altogether, if we learn to spot the signs of stress, depression and anxiety, we will know when to ask someone if they are okay. We recommend that you always ask twice as we often reply automatically to the question with, ‘yeah fine’. The second thing to learn is how to start a conversation about mental health and whether someone is feeling suicidal. This may seem daunting, but simply starting with, ‘are you okay?’ can potentially save a life.” Sam Downie, Managing Director, Mates in Mind.
Employers also have a duty of care to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of their employees, including mental health/stress, and to protect employees with mental ill-health against discrimination and harassment (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, The Equalities Act 2010 and Protection from Harassment Act 1997).
However, providing support for workers may not be easy for smaller employers. According to Government data only 18% of small employers provide some form of Occupational Health for their staff. [5] This is significant, because at the start of 2022, 5.47 million private sector businesses were categorised as a small business (0-49 employees). [6]
So how do small employers and particularly sole traders, access mental health support?
To solve this issue, Mates in Mind is calling on medium and large sized organisations to support the small organisations and sole traders within their supply chains. Supporting supply chains to become mentally resilient is important as it benefits the employees, their employer, and the wider local community. It also benefits the main contractor, by demonstrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) credentials.
Mates in Mind also advocates for creating a culture of prevention. They believe that implementing a continuous and comprehensive approach can help reduce the likelihood of individuals reaching a crisis point, as supporting positive mental health in and through work becomes an integral part of everyone’s role.
Further information
Mates in Mind has launched a Champions Programme to enable medium and large sized organisations to support their own teams, as well as their supply chains, to build a mentally healthy sector. Find out more.
You can watch Chris’s story on YouTube.
Downloads:
Free guides on how to ‘spot the signs’ and ‘start the conversation’ can be downloaded from our Resources page.
World Suicide Prevention Day resources can be downloaded from here.
World Mental Health Day resources can be downloaded from here.
References:
[1] Suicide statistics - House of Commons Library (parliament.uk)
[2] MPs to examine men’s mental and physical health in new inquiry - Committees - UK Parliament
[3] Fewer than one in ten men would tell their employer about mental health struggles - Aviva plc
[4] Support after Suicide – Key to Suicide Prevention – UK Health Security Agency (blog.gov.uk)