A Reply From Norman Lamb's Office

Please note, this is the letter in reply to my previous note. I am checking their figures as you read this, so far they do NOT add up. Each figure each statistic is a life, is a person, I will in due course respond, but right now it appears they have made these up:

Our ref: DE00000788825 

Dear Mr Matthews,

Thank you for your email of 15 June to Norman Lamb about suicide.  I have been asked to reply.

I was sorry to read of your own experiences of mental health issues, and I appreciate the concerns you raise with regard to promoting suicide prevention.  You may be interested to know that the suicide prevention strategy, ‘Preventing suicide in England’, was published on 10 September 2012 to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day.  The strategy highlights the importance of targeting people most at risk by providing the right interventions at the right time.

As well as targeting high-risk groups, improving the mental health of the population can play an important role in preventing suicide.  The implementation of the measures set out in ‘No health without mental health’ will build individual and community resilience, promote mental health and wellbeing, and challenge health inequalities where they exist.

Although good progress has been made in reducing the suicide rate in England over the past ten years, ministers are aware that it is important to be vigilant.  Around 4,500 people took their own life in 2011.  The rise in the number of people committing suicide is a cause for concern.  However, the three-year suicide rate has remained at approximately 7.9 deaths per 100,000 since 2005-07.  The 2009-11 rate represents a fall of 15 per cent since 1999-01.

Suicide continues to be a major public health issue, particularly at a time of economic and employment uncertainty.  Effective suicide prevention needs a co-ordinated approach with input from a wide range of partner organisations and sectors.

You may also wish to convey your sentiments about raising awareness of suicide in schools to the Department for Education.  The contact details are:

Department for Education
Castle View House
East Lane
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 2GJ

Telephone: 0370 000 2288
Website: https://www.education.gov.uk/help/contactus/dfe

I hope this reply is helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Harry Darnell
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health

A Letter To Our Goverment

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you as someone who has not just experienced suicide, but been through the horrifying experience first-hand, luckily surviving. Someone how has helped many people through their darkest thoughts, to see the other side. I am one person but I am 29 and male, did you know that I am more likely to die by suicide then any disease or illness?

That is the shocking fact, I am writing as one voice who is collectively representing a group of us who are asking the simple question ‘what will you our leaders, our government do to educate teens, educate society, and tackle this issue’.

Quite simply the processes in place from education on mental health issues, to our NHS services are not working. When I attempted suicide I was sent from the crisis team to a councillor, who in term informed me the help I needed had been withdrawn for men due to “over demand in the service”. Is this right? Would you shut a school because too many children needed a place?

On average three men die a day from killing themselves, 5% of the population will attempt once in their lifetime, and even more saddening one in six people are affected by a death from suicide. Statistically speaking that means someone in Government has been affected by suicide. Yes, this is a massive issue and one that is buried in society. Let us not mourn another death but take action and fast.

I am pleading to you as someone devoting their life to help others, to improve the education in schools from awareness to better support, to take action. No one should go through what I went through, no one should feel alone, you can make this change, you can take action now by listening to people like me and those I represent, taking our ideas and developing them into policy, and changing the stigma and social awareness of suicide.

What I am asking for:

Better education and processes in school and colleges at a critical time, to highlight depression, and mental wellbeing, including access to peer to peer support groups, and educational programmes that highlight the issue of suicide.

A clear policy to tackle suicide, and offer better support to those who feel alone who feel there is no help, out reach programmes and a better campaign to highlight these issues. Remember suicide does not mean someone is suffering from a mental illness, and this needs to be made clear.

A committee of people, doctors, and patients, that report back to the government strategising policy and reviewing its success, from education to the NHS. This must be made up from not just health care professionals, but those like me, who have experience first hand, and also third hand.

Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours Sincerely

Richard Matthews

Hurry Up We Are Dreaming (suicide education campaigner)