It is a heavy topic to talk about—suicide, but one that is very important to investigate and address the issue. Thoughts on suicide or showing suicidal behavior does not dependent upon either age, gender, race or social status.  

This year we will be raising awareness of actions individuals can take to help or support someone who is struggling, under the international theme of Working Together to Prevent Suicide.

Below is a range of information from our members on actions that individuals can take, which together can help to prevent suicide:

Today’s world, thankfully, is changing. People are incorporating more holistic practices and mindful practices into their daily lives. From children to elders, meditation is one of those practices.

Researchers in Denmark and the United States (US)  found that people in Denmark who grew up in more polluted areas up to the age of 10 were more likely to develop depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or personality disorder.

Children who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face a higher risk of getting mental health problems, a study suggests.   Researchers in Sweden analysed data from 6,400 children, tracking them for an average of nine years.

They found around 17 percent of the children with the agonising condition were given a psychiatric diagnosis.

Technique matters, especially when you’re trying to find a method that works for you.

Pulling yourself into the present, can be difficult if your mind doesn’t want to “let go” of your current thoughts. 

Short of giving yourself an electric shock, you need to break that unproductive connection. Here are a few things you can try to help you bring your attention where it needs to be...in the moment.

What are inhibitions

Inhibitions are the mental brakes that prevent people from showing their true feelings or thoughts. Some­times they are a conscious form of self-control, like 'biting your lip' when it seems risky to say some­thing. Often, they are un­conscious, only showing up as patterns of behaviour or habits of speaking.

There are not many topics that provoke as much fear and anxiousness than that of suicide. When you hear people talking about someone who committed suicide or you are aware of someone who is showing signs of being suicidal, it can leave you with feelings of heartache and sadness if you are close to such a person, and also with fear.

It might be hard to see the signs

If a relative, friend or someone else you know has a mental health issue, they may tell you. But if they don't, any of these signs could suggest something's wrong:

Work-related stress and how to tackle it

Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. Work related stress is now the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, musculoskeletal used to be the big one, but that was when we were kind of a manufacturing country but now we're a service knowledge-based economy primarily, and there it's all about people issues so stress is a really major cause.

There are countless benefits to learning meditation and relaxation exercises to help deal with stress and alleviate tiredness.  

Meditation is a means to find peace and calm and relax the body and mind. It is a means to look inward, detach, and focus on a few moments for one’s self.

 Relaxation exercises are also a means to remove tension but have the added benefit of being able to not only affect one’s emotional and mental well-being but also affect the physical body positively because of the simple movements involved.

After events take place in our lives, the mind analyses them and, for most of us, starts comparing 'what happened' with 'what should have happened', leading to feelings of guilt, remorse, anger and sadness.

The gap between what we want, and reality could be called 'The Abyss', and the bigger it is, the more unsatisfactory life seems to be.

Every conversation a manager has with a team member who may be experiencing mental ill health will be different. Sometimes, a team member may feel able to be very open with their manager from the very first meeting. 

In other situations, it may be difficult for the team member to open up and might take several conversations.

Below are a few tips and considerations for a manager to think about when approaching a conversation with a team member.

No doubt, we have all known someone whose personality does not seem to be consistent; they have these extreme mood swings where one day they seem “high” with a kind of hyper-energy and another day they are down in the dumps, moody, depression. 

Sometimes you feel as if you don’t know where you stand with them because even the words they speak can be one thing on one day, but a completely different thing on another day. It might not even have occurred to you that these people might well be manic depression.

Dysthymic Disorder is a low-grade and yet chronic depression characterized by feelings of sadness or depression associated with lack of interest to do things and including some physical symptoms such as lack of energy, sleep, and concentration.