Publication - Strategy/plan

Creating Hope Together - suicide prevention strategy 2022 to 2032: easy read

Published: 29 September 2022
Directorate: Mental Health Directorate
Topic: Children and families, Communities and third sector, Education, +7 more … Equality and rights, Health and social care, Housing, Law and order, Programme for Government, Public sector, Transport
ISBN: 9781804359969

Easy read version of Scotland's Suicide Prevention Strategy - Creating Hope Together - 2022 to 2025.

Supporting documents

Creating Hope Together: Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022-2023: Easy Read

Introduction

Suicide is what we call it when a person ends their own life.

The Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have made a strategy to lower suicides in Scotland. A strategy is a long-term plan for the future. This strategy is for the next 10 years.

They have also written an action plan. The action plan will be in place for 3 years.

Both documents are based on what people said was needed to lower the number of suicides. The strategy sets out the longterm plans while the action plan sets out what will happen to help lower the number of suicides in the shorter term.

Suicide is complicated. It is caused by lots of things. The plan looks at what can be done by the government, and others, to help lower the number of suicides.

We will tackle wider issues like poverty and social isolation. We will look at things like criminal justice, violence against women, and homelessness. These will help to lower the number of suicides.

We want to make sure that everyone is able to work together to help prevent suicide in Scotland.

More people now talk about their mental health. But things have happened which have affected people in Scotland. Such as COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis.

Suicide can affect anyone. It does not matter what age or gender they are or where they live. But some people are at more risk of suicide.

This plan will help everyone. But we know there is specific work to do to help people most at risk of suicide.

Our vision - how we want things to be

We want people to work together to prevent suicide.

We want people to know where to get help when they need it.

We want people to know how to help someone who feels suicidal.

We want people to get support when they know someone who has been affected by suicide.

Our Principles

We want to help everyone in Scotland. But we should look at other ways to help people who are at more risk of suicide. These might be people who live in poverty or come from different backgrounds.

People who have lived experience of suicide should help make decisions about suicide prevention work.

People with lived experience could include people who have tried to take their own lives or people who care for them. It can also be people who have known someone who has died by suicide. This can be individuals, friends, family, communities and staff.

Children and young people should be involved in decisions about them. They should help make services and new pieces of work that help children and young people.

We should try new ways to help prevent suicide. We will test and listen to experts and people with lived experience.

Our goals for 2032

We want a Scotland where people are protected against suicide.

We want a Scotland where everyone is aware of suicide. Everyone should know what they can do to help themselves and others.

We want to have a Scotland where people can get the support they need.

We want to make sure we listen to people who have been affected by suicide.

How this plan was made

We spoke to people about what they would like to see in a new plan. We held online events and ran a questionnaire so people could tell us what to think about.

We also spoke to organisations who understand suicide.We made sure we included people with lived experience.

We made a report about what people told us. We then asked experts in suicide prevention and mental health for their opinions.

We spoke to groups and communities who are at higher risk of suicide. This helped us write a first version of the plans.

After writing the first version, we asked people to tell us what they thought about it. People told us what to keep and what to change. This helped us to write a final version.

What we know about suicide

We are still learning about the best ways to prevent suicide. Information and evidence show that suicide is not caused by one thing.

There are many reasons for someone to think about suicide. These include what's going on in their life, what type of place they live in and their experience of living there, and their physical and mental health.

It is important to look at things that protect someone from taking their own life. This can be links with other people, family, and work. People are more risk of suicide if they are unemployed, have broken or difficult relationships, feel hopeless and isolated.

Delivering the plan

The Scottish Government and COSLA will make sure all this work gets done.

To do this we have set up a Delivery Collective. This is a group of people and organisations that will connect and work together to help prevent suicide.

Funding

The Scottish Government has promised to double funding from £1.4 million to £2.8 million. This will help support activities that are in the action plan.