Suicide prevention
If you are feeling suicidal, there is support for you across Derbyshire:
- contact NHS 111 telephone: 111 press option 2 for mental health and suicide prevention support. Contact the NHS if you are hard of hearing
- talk to someone you trust – let family or friends know what is going on for you as they may be able to offer support and help keep you safe
- call the Samaritans 24-hour support service, telephone: 116 123
- call a GP – ask for an emergency appointment
- contact your local community mental health team – if you are currently receiving support from them
- visit Derby and Derbyshire Emotional Health and Wellbeing for more suicide prevention information
If your life is at risk please telephone: 999, or attend accident and emergency (A&E).
Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline and Support Service
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has produced a help in a crisis poster with information about what to do if you or someone you know has thoughts of purposely hurting themselves, putting themselves in danger or ending their life. A poster about this service can be found at the bottom of this page.
The Derbyshire Mental Health Helpline and Support Service is a freephone service available to everyone living in Derbyshire - both young people and adults. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you or someone you know are experiencing distress or anxiety, or feeling that you cannot cope, you can contact the service for support over the phone, contact NHS 111 telephone: 111 and press option 2. That support could be about your mental health, but you can also talk through practical issues that may be causing concern. A poster about this service can be found at the bottom of this page.
Free suicide and mental awareness training in Derbyshire
Zero Suicide Alliance has free suicide awareness training that teaches people how to identify, understand and help someone who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts. Posters with a QR code and a link to Zero Suicide Alliance’s suicide awareness training webpage are attached to the bottom of this webpage for you to download and display
Free mental health awareness training is available that is primarily for staff and volunteers who are not qualified mental health professionals. It reflects a whole-system cross-sector workforce approach to prevention and support, and reinforces that mental health is everyone's business.
Suicide bereavement support
The Tomorrow Project is a confidential suicide postvention project supporting individuals and communities affected by suicide. The project is a specialised bereavement support service to help anyone bereaved or affected by suicide.
Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SoBS) exists to meet the needs and break the isolation of those who have been impacted by a loss through suicide. SoBS offers UK peer-led support to adults impacted by suicide loss.
First Hand is a free online resource for anyone affected by witnessing a suicide when they did not know the person who has died. Research suggests that around a third of suicides takes place outside the home, in a public location. The impact can extend far beyond family and friends. Bystanders, including children, may experience shock from witnessing a suicide in a public place or as part of their job.
The Help is at Hand guide is a resource for people bereaved through suicide or other unexplained death and for those helping them. The guide includes information with regard to children and young people.
The Support After Suicide Partnership brings together suicide bereavement organisations and people with lived experience to achieve a vision that everyone bereaved or affected by suicide is offered timely and appropriate support.
Winston’s Wish ;helps children, teenagers and young adults who are grieving the death of someone important to them. They also help advise the adults who are caring for young grieving people including parents, school staff and healthcare professionals.
Addiction Family Support provides a safe space with specialist bereavement support for people affected or bereaved by a loved one’s harmful use of alcohol, drugs or gambling.
The INQUEST handbook is a free and trusted guide for bereaved families and friends affected by a sudden death that involves an inquest. It is a complete and easy-to-understand resource, which can be used by families and bereavement professionals.
The INQUEST online skills and support toolkit is an interactive resource that aims to build a range of skills, from organising information relating to the inquest, speaking in public, to handling media attention. Whether you need help researching the inquest process, keeping a diary of important dates or contacting an MP, this resource provides can help answer your questions.
In the How does grief feel? video, Tina, Dan, Tasneem and Ella share their experiences of grief. If you’ve been bereaved, you might find there are some things you can relate to. But you might find your experience is different – and that’s OK too.
Writer and podcaster Nora McInerny shares her hard-earned wisdom about life and death in her video We don't move on from grief, we move forward with it. Her candid approach to something that will affect us all is as liberating as it is gut-wrenching. Most powerfully, she encourages us to shift how we approach grief.
The Finding the words guide could help make you feel more comfortable about reaching out to someone bereaved by suicide. Few people like to talk about death, and many of us feel awkward around someone who has been bereaved, even if they a good friend or close colleague.
Suicide prevention information and resources
The identifying and responding to suicide clusters resource, based on research of suicide clusters, is part of Public Health England's support for the government’s suicide prevention strategy.
The suicide-safer universities guide provides a framework to understand student suicide, mitigate risk, intervene when students get into difficulties, and respond to these tragic deaths. It sets out the steps you can take to make your university community suicide-safer.
Samaritans awareness campaign called Real People, Real Stories is aimed at men aged 20 to 59 years old. The campaign involves men who have overcome tough times sharing their stories to encourage men, who are most at risk of suicide, to seek help by contacting Samaritans.
Follow @DCCMHSP across Facebook, Instagram and X for daily mental health, suicide prevention and neurodiversity information.
Information for professionals
There are 2 documents attached to this page to assist professionals with supporting someone who has suicidal thoughts or ideation.
- ‘Derbyshire – how to help someone who has suicidal ideation’ is an aide-memoire with some simple steps for supporting someone who expresses suicidal thoughts, which has been developed by Derbyshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (DHCFT) and Derbyshire Community Healthcare Services (DCHS) in partnership with the Derbyshire Self-harm and Suicide Prevention Partnership Forum
- the ‘Suicidal thoughts – how to support someone’ factsheet is a more detailed guide on how to support someone with suicidal thoughts, which has been developed by Rethink Mental Illness
Suicide prevention in Derbyshire
The Derbyshire Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Partnership Forum (DSSPPF) allows organisations to work together across Derby and Derbyshire to achieve a vision that as few people as possible in Derby and Derbyshire struggle with distress and despair, experience self-harm, or die from suicide.
Derby and Derbyshire Emotional Health and Wellbeing have gathered resources about suicide prevention and postvention.
The Let’s Chat Derbyshire podcast is hosted by Derbyshire’s mental health and suicide prevention team and discusses mental health, suicide prevention and neurodiversity.
Derbyshire County Council has more information about suicide prevention and where to get help.
World Suicide Prevention Day
Suicide prevention is everyone’s business. World Suicide Prevention Day is always on 10 September each year when organisations and communities around the world come together to raise awareness to create a world where fewer people die by suicide.
There are free resources from Derbyshire Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.