Life & Progress have always been extremely passionate about suicide prevention and that’s why this year they have selected their chosen charity as the National Suicide Prevention Alliance. They donated £1,500 to help improve the support for those affected by suicide.
The National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) is an alliance of public, private and voluntary organisations and individuals in England who care about suicide prevention and are willing to take individual and collective action to reduce suicide and support those bereaved or affected by suicide. They have over 600 members, and membership is growing at around 40% each year; they support members by sharing information and good practice (via their website, twitter, newsletter and events), enabling collaboration to increase impact (through special interest groups and joint projects such as on World Suicide Prevention Day), and influencing on their behalf at a national level (as members of National Suicide Prevention Strategy Delivery and Advisory Groups). Their communications and events reached over 800,000 people in 2019-20.
Suicide is not just a tragedy for the person who loses their life. It also shatters the lives of those left behind – families, friends, colleagues and communities. For every life lost to suicide, it is estimated that up to 135 people are affected, but there is not a simple formula for reducing suicide. The risk factors are wide ranging and complex. Thoughts of self-harm, and suicidal feelings and behaviour usually result from multiple issues in someone’s life and can be related to many different factors including demographics, social issues, settings or times of crisis. We will only save more lives if all parts of society work together to tackle the problem. Suicide prevention is everyone’s business.
What really drew Life & Progress to NSPA is their focus of attention that the issue of suicide and more broadly, mental wellbeing, is receiving from government and the wider public. We believe that raising awareness of suicidal thoughts and getting more people talking about their wellbeing and mental health is crucial if we are to change society’s attitudes and effectively reduce the number of suicides.
Becca Milic who is a Business Development Manager at Life & Progress said “We are delighted to be supporting the wonderful National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) and their tireless work to reduce suicide rates and support those bereaved or have been affected by suicide. We have therefore made our annual donation for 2020 to the NSPA. Indeed, suicide prevention is something both myself & the rest of the Life & Progress team hold dear to our hearts and it fills us with great happiness to know that our donation will help support the NSPA on their mission to change lives.”
