Suicide Prevention Scotland publishes annual report

Creating Hope Together: Year 2 Annual Report

From: Mental Health Directorate

This annual report from Suicide Prevention Scotland, covers progress on the second year of delivery of Scotland's Suicide Prevention Strategy, Creating Hope Together.

• Foreword
• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Key achievements in year 2
• Responding to recommendations
• Context for delivery
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Footnotes

Foreword

Suicide Prevention Scotland aims to ensure that people with lived and living experience of suicide are central to all our work. It was therefore important that this foreword represents the views of members of the Lived and Living Experience Panel (LLEP) and the Youth Advisory Group (YAG).

To help assist with this, three members of these groups were asked to consider:

1. What they wanted people reading the annual report to take away from it

2. What they are most happy about or proud of in terms of their involvement in the work

Their responses to these are set out below.

Ros

That evening zoom call changed everything. Not just for me, but for how I understood what it means to be part of something bigger than your own loss, your own grief, your own journey through the aftermath. The people in those little squares on my screen weren't just faces in a meeting, they were voices that had walked similar paths, who understood the particular weight of losing someone to suicide, who saw possibility in preventing others from experiencing what we had lived through. I had discovered United to Prevent Suicide.

What I've then gone on to discover through this work is that gratitude isn't just about saying thank you it's also about showing up. It's about taking the drive from Aviemore to Glasgow after a long weekend with friends and a 1700m open water swim, because you know that sharing your story might reach someone who needs to hear it, or someone who might be struggling themselves. It's about taking the worst thing that ever happened to you, losing my dad, and finding a way to make it mean something more.

I'm grateful not only for the opportunity to contribute to this hugely important work, but for the way it has given purpose to my loss. I no longer feel like someone who was left behind, but someone who can help ensure others don't have to be left behind too. The pain and the shame I once carried alone has become a bridge to others still carrying theirs. It has become a sense of pride to my inner self. And in that transformation, I've found something I never expected, hope doesn't just live in the people we help, it lives in the helping itself.

Being part of the Creating Hope Together: suicide prevention strategy work has taught me that preventing suicide isn't just about saving lives, it's about honouring the lives we've lost by making sure others don't have to lose theirs. That's what this annual report represents, and that's why I'm proud to be part of it.

Skye

What I want people to take away from the annual report is the amazing work many different organisations have come together to deliver in the name of suicide prevention especially when it is helping young people.

I am most proud of the fact I have seen some of the positive change happening. Watching the work we give our input on being put into action is a whole other experience and it's amazing to see our voices and experiences having a direct impact.

Charlotte

I hope that as a reader of the Creating Hope Together annual report, you see it as a demonstration of what suicide can be; preventable. It's not inevitable, it's not contagious, it's not some forbidden word. This report is not simply just a record of the achievements of Suicide Prevention Scotland, but it's a testament to how lives can be and will be changed and how lived experienced voices can be uplifted through shared commitments. When people who are affected by suicide, whether through bereavement or through themselves, are given the time and space to share their stories and voice their opinions, real and lasting change happens.

I feel proud just to be a part of the Lived and Living Experience Panel because every meeting brings together an inspiring group of individuals dedicated to the same mission. Each time we come together, it feels like real change is taking place and it fills me with confidence that if my future children find themselves affected by suicide in any way, they'll have access to appropriate, trauma-informed care that I didn't. I am especially proud of witnessing how our lived experience voices not only inform but reshape the process of an action from the start to finish, ensuring that people's stories and insights are intertwined into important decision-making.

We are grateful for all the input the members of the LLEP and YAG have in shaping the work set out in this annual report and especially to Ros, Charlotte and Skye for taking the time to contribute to this foreword.