"Statistics need to have faces, faces need to have voices, and voices need listening to. That is what is lacking."
— former Bishop of Durham, Dr David Jenkins
Campaign for Racial Justice in Suicide Prevention
Warning – Suicide is a sensitive and upsetting issue. Please take care in reading the information. If you need help, please dial Samaritans for free on 116 123. Where a person is at immediate risk, dial 999.
What is the campaign?
- Raise awareness of suicide and suicide prevention within racialised communities.
- Influence policy and practice to ensure equal outcomes for racialised communities affected by suicide and/or suicide attempts.
- Research, develop, and work towards the implementation of anti-racism strategies and practice within national, regional, and local suicide prevention.
- Ensure the voices of racialised communities affected by suicide are heard and acted upon.
- Review national and regional data to ensure robustness of ethnicity data sets and monitor steps taken to achieve accuracy and compliance.
- Work collaboratively with national organisations to achieve the above and become a catalyst for change.
- Provide technical advice, support, and expertise where required within a minimum consultancy framework.
The aims will be reviewed each year to ensure relevance and impact.
“Statistics need to have faces, faces need to have voices and voices need listening to. That is what is lacking.”
"I heard this statement by the former Bishop of Durham, Dr David Jenkins, at a poverty hearing in Leeds in 1995, and it has stuck with me as a principle to champion. I used it in a community response to the Bradford ‘Manningham’ riots in the same year entitled “Voices Must Be Heard,” that captured the narratives of our local community—so damaged by poverty, exclusion, poor social policy, and racism.
So, what is your organisation doing to promote racial justice generally and suicide prevention specifically?
The Campaign for Racial Justice in Suicide Prevention (CRJ-SP) is a new initiative I wanted to set up, having worked in mainstream suicide prevention programmes for nearly 10 years.
For nearly 30 years, I have worked in mental health prevention, including specifically on race equality and offender health. I saw and felt the inequalities firsthand—whether in hospitals, the public sphere, within prison cells, or through listening to the narratives of those affected."
– Manawar Jan-Khan
The Problem
There is a lack of data on the number of suicides among people of colour, as ethnicity is not often recorded accurately.
How We Help
Campaign For Racial Justice In Suicide Prevention will seek change in suicide prevention among people of colour.
Resources
A selection of resources that will be built up over time, to help people of colour and those of ethnic minority groups.
