Canmore Trust Wellbeing Conference 2024

Finding common paths towards hope and suicide prevention

05 December, 2024 / indepth
 

The Canmore Trust hosted its two-day Wellbeing Conference in November at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.

John Gibson

It brought together more than 200 doctors, nurses, veterinary surgeons and dentists, as members of the healthcare professions with the highest rates of suicide, to offer mutual support, to encourage wellbeing, and to find common paths towards hope and suicide prevention. The Canmore Trust1 was founded by John Gibson and his wife Isobel following the loss of their son Cameron, a young veterinary surgeon, in 2019.

The conference featured a number of renowned speakers, including Professor Rory O’Connor,
President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention2; Alice Hendy MBE, founder of the award-winning charity R;pple3; Fiona Drouet MBE, founder of EmilyTest4; Richard McCann5, internationally-acclaimed motivational speaker and author of Just a Boy; and Haylis Smith, Suicide Prevention Scotland’s National6 National Delivery Lead.

We need to make sure that compassion is embedded everywhere but, also, we need to be self-compassionate

On the Friday evening there was a fundraising dinner, with the theme ‘Celebrating Life’, which was hosted by BBC weather presenter, and Canmore Trust ambassador, Judith Ralston. 

Professor O’Connor spoke about his 30 years working to understand and prevent suicide, including co-leading NQ Mental Health Research’s Gone Too Soon project7, which brought together a 40-strong multidisciplinary global team of academic, policy, clinical, and lived and living experience experts with the specific aim of understanding the driving forces behind these deaths and what needs to be done to
tackle this public health crisis.

The work resulted in the paper Gone Too Soon: priorities for action to prevent premature mortality associated with mental illness and mental distress8. This identified 12 key risk factors and mechanisms and 18 actionable solutions across three organising principles: the integration of mental and physical health care, the prioritisation of prevention while strengthening treatment, and the optimisation of intervention synergies across socialecological levels and the intervention cycle.

Professor O’Connor said that these solutions included: accessible, integrated, high-quality primary care, early life, workplace, and community-based interventions co-designed by the people they should serve, decriminalisation of suicide [in countries where that remains an issue] and restriction of access to lethal means, stigma reduction, reduction of income, gender and racial inequality and increased investment. 

He also spoke about the development of the IMV Model9, a recognition that suicide is characterised by
a complex interplay of biology, psychology, environment and culture “and that we need to move beyond psychiatric categories if we are to further understand the causes of suicidal malaise”. 

Professor O’Connor also highlighted that 75 per cent of suicides are by men and that more work needs be done to understand the causes.

“For me,” he said, “suicide prevention is about two things.  First thing is, can we stop people becoming suicidal in the first place? If we can’t do that, can we stop them acting on their thoughts of suicide? There’s so much evidence that if we can work collaboratively with individuals who are vulnerable, that we can hopefully save lives in terms of restricting access to the means of suicide.”

Professor O’Connor said Scotland was leading the way with some of its initiatives, such as the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) programme10. The DBI’s ‘ask once get help fast’ approach has two complementary levels.

The first is provided by frontline staff, such as NHS 24, emergency departments and the police and ambulance services who can offer a “seamless referral, with confidence and clarity”, to DBI Level 2. This second level is provided by trained third sector staff who contact the person within 24-hours and provide “compassionate, problem-solving support, wellness and distress management planning, supported connections and signposting for a period of around 14 days”.

Professor O’Connor concluded: “We need to make sure that compassion is embedded everywhere but, also, we need to be self-compassionate. As John Gibson said, in introducing the conference, it’s tough working in this area. We all have our own experiences. We need to look after ourselves and be kind to ourselves. We need to embrace the complexity. We need to rethink models of care.

“Lastly, there is connection. Anything we can do that promotes human connection, potentially saves lives.  Anything we can do, which interrupts those suicide thoughts – we know suicidal thoughts cause a wave of intensity – anything we can do, a WhatsApp message, a phone call, a smile, can save people’s lives.”

If you need help, you can talk to someone at any of the organisations listed on The Canmore Trust website.

References

  1. The Canmore Trust.
  2. The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).
  3. R;pple is an innovative online interceptive tool designed to ensure more help and support is provided to individuals conducting searches related to self-harm or suicide.
  4. The Emily Test – Challenging gender based violence in schools.
  5. iCan academy richardmccann.co.uk
  6. Gov.scot Mental Health and Suicide support information.
  7. MQ Mental Health – A roadmap to prevent people being gone too soon.
  8. The Lancet Psychology Journal – Gone Too Soon: priorities for action to prevent premature mortality associated with mental illness and mental distress.
  9. suicideresearch.info/the-imv
  10. www.dbi.scot

Tags: 2024 / canmore / Conference / Glasgow / Health / mental / Trust / wellbeing

Categories: Feature / Magazine

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