On World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September), Trespass and Suicide Reduction Manager Collette Windsor brought key colleagues together with partner agencies for a special conference to discuss ways we can work together to prevent suicide on our network and in our local communities. The event was designed to get all agencies working together to support the review of our Suicide Prevention Strategy, which will be published next month.

Trespass and Suicide Reduction Manager Collette Windsor said: “The Suicide Prevention Conference was the first of its kind hosted by us and shows our commitment to working together with all our partners across the Kent route to prevent suicide on our network.

“Nearly 100 delegates attended the conference, and the speakers were informative, compassionate and inspiring. Everyone there had a real passion and commitment to prevent suicide. We are reviewing our Suicide Prevention Strategy following the conference and the attendees showed an exciting level of desire to collaborate with us to prevent suicide.

“Changing the narrative for me, means that we not only focus on reducing the means for people to access areas of risk, we must also proactively engage with other organisations working with vulnerable people, to talk about how we can take our safeguarding work into our local communities to reduce fatalities on our network.

“We can do this through our Pass it On campaign, which is aimed at professionals working on our network and provides them with an avenue to discuss people of concern with me. We can also achieve more visibility and awareness through generalised outreach events, aimed at promoting help-seeking behaviour and bystander intervention.

“Every suicide is a tragedy. Every suicide leaves a hole in the universe, coloured by trauma and unanswered questions. The conference was just the start of a long journey we will all take together – across Kent, Medway and South London – to prevent suicide where we can.

Attendees included: Amparo (a charity who offers support to anyone affected by suicide), British Transport Police Community Safety partnerships representatives from across Kent, Medway and South East London, Kent County Council, MIND (a mental health charity), Network Rail, NHS mental health teams from across our route, prominent researchers from Canterbury Christchurch University and Samaritans.