Former Gemini, Heart and Radio Exe radio presenter Matt Young has unveiled a new networking initiative - Who Needs Instructions – to provide practical support for men to help them overcome mental health challenges.
With suicide rates amongst men at an all-time high, Matt believes that if men felt better able to talk to each other about the stuff that really matters, it would help prevent many from reaching crisis point.
Having spent over 20 years as a broadcaster, Matt has honed his own communication skills and now wants to encourage others to do the same.
Olly’s Future has trained 120 first year students at the University of Exeter Medical School in suicide prevention skills to help friends and future patients who are thinking of suicide.
Since 2021, the charity has delivered Dr SAMS (Suicide Awareness to Medical Students) to 1,162 students at medical schools across the UK as part of the core curriculum. More and more medical schools are signing up for this life-saving initiative.
The charity’s vision is a world where no young person loses their life to suicide and was born out the tragedy of Founder and Chair Ann Feloy...
Barbering and hairdressing students at a Devon college will now get suicide prevention training as part of their qualifications.
South Devon College in Torquay and The Lions Barber Collective have joined forces to set up the first ever Lions Barber Academy.
The charity was founded by the Torquay-based and internationally recognised barber, Tom Chapman. After losing a friend to suicide, Tom, a former South Devon College student, set out to do something to help prevent others from taking their own lives.
"It's a huge privilege to launch the first Lions Barber Academy...
Training new facilitators to help tackle suicides in young people was the theme of a recent workshop delivered by Lifeline Workshops Inc, developers of The ASK Workshop: Assessing for Suicide in Kids. This comes at the same time as the government announces more to be done to tackle mental health and suicide, including training for teachers, university staff and NHS staff.
The workshop was hosted by Action to Prevent Suicide CIC and aimed at training practitioners drawn from different sectors including teaching, children’s therapeutic work, suicide prevention and bereavement and...
The first in a series of Suicide Intervention Briefings has been held for council staff across South and West Devon.
The briefings are part of an initiative from the Community Safety Partnership (CSP), which includes Teignbridge and South Hams District Councils and West Devon Borough Council, and are being held in conjunction with Public Health Devon and Action to Prevent Suicide.
Suicide is a global issue, and takes someone’s life every 40 seconds. In the UK it’s the biggest killer of young people and men under 50, and it’s estimated that two-thirds of people who take...
Devon residents are being called on to help prevent people in their communities from taking their own lives by supporting a project to train up hundreds of specialist suicide ‘first aiders’.
Suicide devastates lives, families and communities – in Devon two people take their own lives every week. Local Authorities, GPs, the NHS and the voluntary sector work closely together to prevent suicide. But often it is communities who are better placed to recognise the early signs of distress and intervene before a person’s problems reach crises point. Now Devon County Council’s Public Health...
A local Samaritans branch is linking with another charity to provide free support sessions for people who have lost a friend, relative or colleague to suicide.
The Exeter, Mid & East Devon Samaritans and the Devon branch of Cruse Bereavement Care are jointly arranging the groups, each of which is open to up to eight people who can share their experiences and offer each other support.
The aim is to attract those bereaved three months or longer ago, who are then encouraged to attend sessions on six consecutive weeks in central Exeter. The next course begins in the New...
Ten people took their own lives in prisons in the South West during 2015 as the suicide rate behind bars remained at an alarmingly high level, figures seen by the Howard League for Penal Reform reveal today (Thursday 28 January).
They were among a total of 29 people who died in the region’s prisons last year, according to data published by the Ministry of Justice.
Four people took their own lives in Exeter prison. Two people died by suicide in Bristol prison and two more in Guys Marsh prison. Deaths by suicide were also recorded in Dartmoor and Erlestoke prisons.
A local Samaritans branch is linking with another charity to provide free support sessions for people who have lost a friend, relative or colleague to suicide.
The Exeter, Mid & East Devon Samaritans and the Devon branch of Cruse Bereavement Care are jointly arranging the groups, each of which is open to up to eight people who can share their experiences and offer each other support.
The aim is to attract those bereaved three months or longer ago, who are then encouraged to attend sessions on six consecutive weeks in central Exeter.
Statistics show that men are half as likely as women to be diagnosed with depression but three times more likely to end their own lives. The failure to understand male depression is due to a continuing silence about the emotional world of men, according to a study to be showcased during the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Festival of Social Science.
The research, which is carried out by Dr Ali Haggett of the University of Exeter, suggests that, although men are three times as likely to become alcohol dependent and more than twice as likely to use Class A drugs and to...
