In 2021, more people in England and Wales died by suicide than the year before. At the same time, around eight million people in England struggling with their mental health did not qualify for the support they needed—leaving NHS services with no option but to directly signpost to charities who run helpline services like our own in order to bridge the gap. This is far from acceptable at a time when the sector is stretched to near breaking point and inadequately funded.
Back in 2018 CALM put suicide prevention on the national agenda by successfully lobbying the prime minister to appoint the world’s first Minister for Suicide Prevention. That’s pretty much as far as it went. Four years and a global pandemic later, the post has been absorbed into the Minister of State for Care’s responsibilities and ignored.
In January, Maria Caulfield, Under Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy, missed the one and only national conference on suicide this year. In the same week the government made a U-turn on a 10-year mental health plan it has been promising for almost a year, scrapping it in favour of a Major Conditions Strategy. The U-turn is a betrayal of its promise to develop a visionary new plan for mental health, from cradle to grave, from prevention to treatment. This pattern has been repeated over the past decade.
So where have we gone wrong? Mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If we want these tragic numbers to decrease, real change is needed urgently. We need dedicated cross-government action that covers housing, education, health, money, and employment if we truly want to make progress.
We know the risk factors and conditions associated with suicide and poor mental health, so we need to proactively take actions to address them. We need to invest in education, welfare, affordable housing, and ensure everyone has access to mental health support before they’re at crisis point. Yet in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, and at a time when the government persists in its failed programme of austerity, things are only heading one way—and fast.
It’s no surprise that right now, more people than ever are turning to CALM for support and advice, with demand up 17 per cent year-on-year. To put that into context, in 2022 we had over three million minutes of potentially lifesaving calls via our helpline and webchat services, across a range of issues including anxiety, stress, loneliness and relationship concerns. And in the face of rising everything, bills, food, petrol, energy, things are only going to get busier. Before Christmas we saw calls to our helpline about money worries increase by 25 per cent, and additional increases in the price of essentials could be on the horizon.
The mental health crisis we’re facing now is unprecedented. It is a cross-generational issue that touches almost everyone in our society, ripping through the heart of communities. To focus on suicide prevention, we need meaningful action: making sure people aren’t falling into poverty and homelessness, and protecting jobs, education and welfare.
The cost-of-living crisis will disproportionately affect poorer households. Men in the most disadvantaged areas of the UK are up to 10 times more likely to take their own lives than those in affluent areas. Suicide rates are greater in deprived areas and more people die by suicide when countries face a recession or drop in the standard of living. Combine this with our current benefits system, which so often makes claimants feel that worklessness equates with worthlessness, and we have a toxic mix.
People are scared, and don’t know what to expect or how to cope. That’s where we need strong leadership, just like we had the furlough scheme in 2020 to lessen the impact of Covid on people’s income. We need strong, decisive leadership to ensure people aren’t being dragged into poverty, because the consequences of that, as we know, can be tragic.
Effective preventative measures isn’t only helping people when they’re desperate. It requires working across industries, political beliefs, cultures and communities to make support accessible and available, and tackling well-known suicide risk factors like poverty, homelessness and addiction. Only then can our country get better.
If you’re struggling head to thecalmzone.net for practical support and advice
