About
They are an alliance of over 2,000 individuals and public, private, voluntary and community organisations in England who care about suicide prevention and are willing to take action to reduce suicide and support those affected by suicide.
Vision
The NSPA’s vision is that fewer lives are lost to suicide and anyone affected by suicide receives the best possible support.
Mission
is to get all parts of society working together to take action to reduce suicide and improve the support for those bereaved by suicide.
History
The NSPA was formally constituted in September 2013 but originally evolved from the Call to Action for Suicide Prevention launched in July 2011.
The difference they aim to make
- Reducing stigma: They want all parts of society talking about suicide and taking action to maintain good mental health, so that it is as normal as talking about and maintaining physical health.
- Encouraging help-seeking: They want more people who are experiencing emotional distress to seek help before they become suicidal.
- Providing the appropriate support: They want to ensure that when people in emotional distress seek help, they receive appropriate support from the people or organisations they approach and that they are offered appropriate options.
- Reducing access to means: They want it to be harder for people experiencing severe emotional distress to have access to the means to take their own life.
- Reducing the impact of suicide: They want to ensure that people affected by suicide get the support they need to cope with the impact on their life.
- Improving data & evidence: They want there to be better official data about suicide in England and more evidence about effective suicide prevention. Those working in suicide prevention should find it easier to obtain this data and evidence.
- Working together: They want organisations with an interest in suicide prevention collaborating with each other to make a bigger difference.
How They work
The NSPA believes that everyone has a role to play in reducing suicide and supporting those affected by suicide. It seeks to demonstrate this by bringing together organisations from across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors that are willing to take action.
As a membership organisation, the alliance seeks to facilitate the development and sharing of good practice, as well as encourage the collaboration and joint working of members in order to affect real change in this area.
You can read more about the NSPA’s priorities for 2019-21 in their Strategic Framework which has been developed in consultation with the NSPA Steering Group and incorporates input from the wider membership.
