`
Joined on: 30 January 2019
Bristol City Council
Bristol City Council prioritises suicide prevention, and its suicide prevention strategy and action plans are developed with the support of the Bristol Suicide Prevention Group. This multiagency partnership is administered by the council and brings together representatives from statutory, voluntary and community sector organisations that play a role in suicide prevention.
Bristol’s ambition is to be a zero suicide city, because every life lost to suicide is one too many. We want to make suicide prevention everyone’s business - organisations, businesses and individuals – have a role to play in suicide prevention, starting with talking openly about suicide. Together, we can reduce the stigma around suicide and break down the barriers which prevent people from seeking help. Together, we can reduce lives lost to suicide.
Bristol’s Suicide Prevention strategy sets out our five-year vision for suicide prevention in Bristol. It provides a framework to guide our system-wide alliance and inform coordinated action. It also introduces the Zero Suicide Bristol Pledge and through our Zero Suicide Bristol campaign, we encourage colleagues, partner organisations, our communities, family and friends to take the Zero Suicide Alliance training.
We joined the ZSA in 2019 when we first shared our ambition to become a zero suicide city. We have continued to deliver on this ambition alongside city-wide partners, including promoting the Zero Suicide Alliance training. The training has now been taken more than 20,000 times in Bristol by professionals and citizens alike.
Bristol has a Zero Suicide Bristol Pledge: Zero Suicide Bristol - Thrive Bristol
By taking this pledge, you/your organisation will help to:
- Reduce the risk factors associated with suicide and strengthen protective factors
- Normalise conversations about mental health and enable people to access support
- Encourage colleagues, partner organisations, our communities, family and friends to take the Zero Suicide Alliance training
- Reduce stigma and increase confidence to engage and support others
- Take coordinated and practical steps to reduce and prevent deaths by suicide in Bristol
The Health and Wellbeing Board are fully supportive of the Zero Suicide Bristol campaign. You can find two short videos from one of our councillors who chairs the board and a member of Bristol City Council staff with lived experience of bereavement by suicide here: Zero Suicide Bristol - Thrive Bristol.
