Pips Charity – Founding Member of The Royal Foundation’s New National Suicide Prevention Network
This World Mental Health Day, we’re honoured to join The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales as a founding partner of the National Suicide Prevention Network — a new UK-wide initiative dedicated to uniting and strengthening life-saving efforts across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Renée Quinn, Executive Director, PIPS Suicide Prevention Ireland, said: “Working with communities in Northern Ireland gives PIPS charity unique experience in suicide prevention, and a unique voice to share with our partners in the Network. Our partnership with The Royal Foundation will also allow us to hugely increase our services, funding a 24-hour suicide prevention helpline across Northern Ireland, in order to provide support on Friday nights and weekends when other services are less available.”
The Network will be chaired by Professor Ann John, a leading expert in the prevention of suicide and self-harm and Consultant in Public Health Medicine for Public Health Wales. The Network’s activity will develop over time and be led by the partners, focused on:
- Understanding and identifying the root causes of suicide
- Providing accessible support for everyone
- Fostering greater collaboration, innovation and action
Preventing suicide is a complex challenge, shaped by social, economic and personal factors, meaning there is no one size fits all model of support. The Network is founded on the hope and belief that, by working together, we can do much more to prevent the 7,055 deaths that are caused by suicide in the UK every year. Located across the UK, organisations are coming together to reach thousands of people who may be impacted by this issue. Building on existing work in the sector, the Network will strengthen support systems, close gaps in access and build cross-sector collaboration, whilst generating theawareness, resources and innovation that is needed.
