WORKING TOGETHER TO SAVE LIVES
Jenny Morrison talks to two women linked by suicide about the vital role they’re playing in prevention
WHEN Jenn Barnes’s younger brother took his own life, she vowed to do all she could to help other families going through the same loss.
Meanwhile, Stephanie Craig had attempted suicide on more than 20 separate occasions.
The two friends now volunteer as part of a lived experience panel with the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG).
They have teamed up for a new video animation highlighting the work being done across Scotland to prevent suicides and support families of those who have lost a loved one through self-harm. Last year, 850 people in Scotland lost their lives to suicide.
Stephanie, 21, of Penilee, near Glasgow, said: “Suicide touches so many lives but is still something people find incredibly hard to talk about. So I’m talking about it in the hope my story will help others.
“Growing up, I went through so many events in my life that seriously took their toll on my mental health. I attempted to take my life more than 20 times and in each attempt I wanted to die.
“Looking back, I can see what I really wanted was for my life to change. If someone had told me, ‘When you wake up tomorrow, your life is going to be so different’ then I wouldn’t have wanted to die – but I couldn’t see that.
“A police negotiator saved my life once, just by listening to me. He didn’t judge me, get angry or frustrated, or make me feel rushed.
“Another time, a residential care worker had a feeling something was wrong and found me when I most needed help. If he’d been two minutes later, I would have been dead.
“I’m now working with Police Scotland to help them train officers and negotiators in understanding suicide and how to help a person in crisis.
“If sharing my story helps others then that also helps me.” Stephanie has been working with the NSPLG on projects including encouraging councils to create suicide prevention and support services individual to local areas.
She has also given guidance on recommendations to support someone in an immediate crisis and on developing research into why some people are at greater risk of suicide than others.
Stephanie said: “As someone who was in several at-risk groups, it’s good we’re doing research to find out why.”
Jenn, 34, lost her brother, Calum “Lumo” Barnes, 21, to suicide in September 2017 and after the talented young rapper’s death, his family found a video camera among his belongings.
He had left vlogs detailing his mental health struggles and had been using his profile and talent as a writer and poet to help others.
Film-maker Hannah Currie used the vlogs in an awardwinning documentary about Calum’s life, called We Are All Here.
Jenn said finding out that Calum had written poetry for a mental health charity made her determined to follow his lead and do all she could to campaign on mental health issues. She added: “When we found the footage Calum recorded, at first we couldn’t watch it. We were scared he had maybe left a final goodbye.
“But it was all very positive. It was clear he’d recorded them to try and help others – he just forgot to take the same steps to help himself. We knew we had to follow Calum’s lead and use our experience to help others, too.”
She added: “Ten per cent of people bereaved by suicide will attempt to take their own life. After my brother died, I was scared I was going to lose my dad, too. There was no support for us. It’s so good things are changing.”