The Look Out For Wolverhampton website has been developed by the Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Stakeholder Forum and provides a wide range of information, resources and support to help prevent suicide.
It has been launched to coincide with the start of the Look Out For Wolverhampton suicide prevention awareness campaign.
Forum trustee and chair Clare Dickens said: "Many suicide prevention campaigns focus on encouraging those experiencing such distress to reach out for help. Whilst that message is important, we need to also focus awareness efforts on some of the relational barriers when people do.
"This campaign offers a call to action to know we can all play a part – and that we don’t have to be experts either. I’m quite confident that many lives have been saved through the eloquence of someone being kind, through someone noticing the distress of someone else and having a commitment to do something to alleviate that suffering, through taking intolerable emotional distress as seriously as we would do chest pain.
"We hope some of the resources promoted via this campaign help us to help others and maybe even ourselves."
Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, added: "The campaign aims to give people the information and support they need so that they can play their part in preventing suicide, one conversation at a time.
"It also addresses some of the myths and misunderstandings which surround suicide and which can leave people feeling unable to offer meaningful help to others in distress, or seek help for themselves.
"We can all Look Out For Wolverhampton by playing our part to keep people safe if we just look out for a loved one, a friend, a colleague or anyone else that we know or care about. There is always hope, and there is help and support available locally and nationally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
The website contains full details of local and national organisations which can provide help and support. They include:
- Samaritans, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, call 116 123, visit Samaritans or email jo@samaritans.org (emails will be answered within 24 hours).
- Papyrus HopelinkUK, preventing suicide in under 35s, available 9am to midnight, call 08000 684 141, text 07860 039967, visit Papyrus or email pat@papyrus-uk.org.
- Childline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, call 0800 1111. Online counsellor chat is available at Childline.
- Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Crisis Line, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, call 08000 086 516, text 07860 025281 or visit Black Country Health Care.
- Kaleidoscope Plus Group, including support for people bereaved by suicide, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, text TeamKPG to 85258 or visit Kaleidoscope Plus Group.
In an emergency, people should always call 999.
For details of these and other organisations which can help people who are feeling suicidal or affected by suicide, please visit Look Out For Wolverhampton.
